In recent decades, Zen philosophy has reached new coasts and mountains, natural areas of the West that, with their own system of self-care, are faced with alternative practices to their status quo. Especially when it comes to Zen practitioners who, without knowledge of the environment around them, begin to stack stones in order to generate balance in their lives.
Although in Asian cultures, a few indigenous people from South America, the Irish and the Scots usually stack small stones as a representation of internal balance in sacred sites, this fashion, brought by tourism, has begun to ruin the coastal ecosystems of the Balearic Islands. and the Canary Islands. Little by little, this practice, which seems innocent, has a serious impact because according to Ramón Casillas, professor of Geology at the University of La Laguna, in the Canary Islands, “in areas where the density of these towers is important, the place that occupy these towers prevents plants from growing, and alters the transit of fauna.”
Casillas has explained to the newspaper La Vanguardia that the few plants that can grow among salinity, winds and strong sun exposure are strongly affected if the stones are removed, since the roots no longer have a sufficiently humid place to grow. “Vegetation disappears quickly.”; and the plant species that are suffering the most from this trend are sea parsley –Chrithmum maritimum–, nun’s coixinet –Astragalus balearicus–, l’eriçó –Launaea cervicornis– and several species of the genus Limonium. This, in turn, affects the fauna, since many of these plants are characterized by being large, which attracts a large number of small animals such as ants, spiders and beetles. In other words, if the plants dry out, the insects disappear, the food chain is broken and the ecosystem of the region is altered to the point of extinction of many endemic species.
The specialist adds: “All these animals have these places with little vegetation and rocky soils as their refuge. Invertebrates and small reptiles usually create their burrows under stones, and birds usually nest on the ground –unless on the coast–. “When rocks are removed from their place, the home of these species is destroyed.” And the worst appears when tourists, not finding loose rocks, dismantle dividing walls of farmers or livestock huts – which, in most cases, are constructions from medieval times –: “In the long run, in areas with a high density of these mounds, the disturbance to the landscape can be as great as raising a shed. Because every human construction in a natural environment always implies an alteration.”
Unfortunately there are no sanctions at present; However, awareness campaigns have been undertaken to abandon this custom. For example, in Menorca, one of the Balearic islands, warning signs have been placed and excursions have been organized to dismantle the mounds.