The previous PORN ordination plan for the region has been overturned. 
The Andalucian High Court of Justice TSJA, has ordered the suspension of the PORN, Ordination Plan for Natural Resources, which had been passed for the Cabo de Gata-Níjar nature park in Almería last March. The reason is that in the plan the area of El Algarrobico, where a partially built hotel is built on the front line of the beach, is classified as ‘an existing inhabited zone for tourist use’. The court considers that with such a classification the Azata del Sol Hotel could become legal, with devastating environmental effects in the unspoilt stretch of coastline. The court has ordered also that the initial protection zone for the area be maintained, as had been requested by the ecologist group Greenpeace.
The future of the partially built hotel has been the subject of legal action in several courts over recent years, with the local council and many local people in favour of the construction because of the employment the hotel is thought to generate.
