preserve the Malpaís de Rasca Special Nature Reserve of urban pressure and other threats such as the traffic of off-road vehicles, the dumping of rubbish or the looting of vestiges of the first settlers of Tenerife. With this objective, the Arona City Council has formally asked the Government of the Canary Islands to promote an initiative in the Parliament of the Canary Islands that allows the new delimitation of this space, considered to be of high ecological, cultural and ethnographic value, to be approved.
The Government Council of the Cabildo, at the proposal of the Aronero Consistory, gave the go-ahead in March 2019 to expand the protected area by 50%, going from 315 hectares to 475. Now, through a letter sent by the Mayor José Julián Mena to the Minister of Territorial Planning, José Antonio Valbuena, asking the Government to take the initiative. In addition, the alderman has also addressed the Cabildo to request information on the status of the file.
“The expansion of the protection zone is key if we want to preserve a key area for Arona and for the Canary Islands as a whole, with a high environmental and heritage value, from urban pressure,” Mena said yesterday.
The Malpaís de Rasca Special Nature Reservenestled in an area close to densely inhabited and tourist areas, contains several volcanic cones and basaltic flows, and houses up to thirty Macaronesian, Canarian and Tenerife endemisms.
Among the plant species, the so-called sad tajinaste stands out, exclusive to Tenerife and La Gomera, included in the Catalog of Endangered Species of the Canary Islands. Likewise, in the Charca del Fraile area there are 40 species of birds that can nest and reptiles such as the blight, the perenquén or the spotted lizard, a large archaic lizard.
The reserve houses vestiges of aboriginal culture and dwellings of dry stone and salt flats. The space was declared a protected area in 1987 and is part of the Natura Network, as it was considered a Site of Community Importance in 2001.
