Overtourism is regularly blamed for killing local life in tourists hotspots around the world, but for this beach reserve in Europe, the destructive behaviour is said to be tourists having sex. The Dunas de Maspalomas Special Nature Reserve, on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, is known for its sand dunes behind its lighthouse on the seafront, which have been legally protected since 1982 as one of the the last remaining shifting dune systems in Europe. A new paper in the Journal of Environmental Management, "Sand, Sun, Sea and Sex with Strangers,” identified 298 “sex spots” on the beach, and found that the tourists' sex, and "cruiser trampling," impacts "directly" the nebkha dunes that form around vegetation, as well as eight native plant species, three of which are endemic. Patrick Hesp, one of the report's authors, wrote in a separate article, saying: "We're not calling for an end to public sex -- but we do want people to be aware of the damage it can do."
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