The delegate of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in the Canary Islands, Manuel Nogales, stated this Monday in a statement that a master plan for the use and management of the Teide National Park more restrictive than the current one.
Manuel Nogales, a researcher at the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology (IPNA), explained that the draft of the new use and management plan is an “adequate starting document to combat the challenges that currently arise” for the conservation of the Park. Teide National.
He has indicated that the purpose of this new document is to renew and adapt the plan to current conservation conditions, which is the main and ultimate objective of any national park.
Manuel Nogales makes an account of what has happened in recent years, and thus has pointed out that in this decade, the number of visitors to the Teide National Park has been gradually increasing until reaching 2018, before the covid-19 pandemic , more than 4 million visitors concentrated in an area of only about 190 square kilometers.
It is the first national park established as such in the Canary Islands (January 22, 1954) and in 2007 it received World Heritage status from UNESCO, which recognizes it as one of the richest and most diverse places in the world. .
In addition, in 1989, the Council of Europe awarded the national park the European Diploma in its highest category, still in force today, and added that these considerations highlight the obvious uniqueness of this protected area and its natural values in a context world.
Hence, the new Governing Plan for Use and Management is particularly relevant within the network of natural spaces in the Spanish state, Manuel Nogales underlined.
According to the CSIC delegate in the Canary Islands, added to this urgency is the fact that El Teide currently presents serious problems, from the point of view of the conservation of its biota, related to the presence of two introduced herbivores: the mouflon and the rabbit .
He explained that both animals cause significant damage to the flora and vegetation so exclusive to the Teide National Park, which is home to 12 endemic species.
Manuel Nogales has pointed out that another drawback for conservation work is the exploitation of honey (installation of hives), of which 2,700 have been authorized annually in the last decade, and whose bees displace native pollinators, many of which they are also endemic.
Added to the above is the effect of climate change, especially pernicious in high mountain environments, he recalled.
These are “only some” of the main threats to which the Teide National Park is exposed, but they show the necessary implementation of a new, more restrictive regulation regarding its conservation.
This is what is sought to be achieved with this new draft of the PRUG, which, in his opinion, is an adequate starting document to combat the challenges that currently arise for the conservation of the Teide National Park, he concluded.
