The penalties have been substantial. A tour company was fined €4,500 last summer for running a convoy of buggies through the Los Ajaches Natural Monument near Yaiza, a protected area and bird protection zone. Agents alongside Seprona, the Guardia Civil's nature unit, have since opened a case over six buggies crossing a breeding zone for endangered birds, among them the Egyptian vulture, lesser kestrel and barn owl, in the Barranco de las Piletas at Guatiza.
The damage is the reason. Vehicles compact the soil, accelerate erosion and destroy vegetation, and the noise drives vulnerable species such as the Canarian houbara from their feeding and breeding grounds. In the enarenado vineyards, driving across the volcanic ash smothers the vines.
The root of the problem is a missing rulebook. Canarian law requires Lanzarote to map out which roads and tracks vehicles may legally use, and the island has never done it. Until it does, the councillor for territorial policy, Jesús Machín, says off-road Lanzarote buggy tours are already banned under existing planning rules, since nothing formally permits them. His stated aim is to regulate the tours rather than scrap them, and trips on paved roads are unaffected.
La Graciosa is caught up in it too. The car-free northern island will now allow 15 vehicles into its Natural Park area, up from two since 2005. Ecologists in Action say the old limit recognised motor traffic there as something exceptional, and warn it is becoming routine, calling for almost all motorised trips to be dropped in favour of walking and cycling.
Papagayo shows what worries them. Its beaches lie in a protected area with no tarmac road permitted, yet hundreds of vehicles grind down the dirt track daily, kicking up dust and parking along the clifftops. The €3 charge on non-resident vehicles brings in around €300,000 a year, but many residents say the beaches have lost the quiet that once defined them.
For visitors, a buggy or quad trip is not illegal in itself, and on-road tours run as normal. The off-road side is what is under review, so it is worth making sure any tour keeps to legal, permitted routes.
