The council allocates more than 3.5 million to fight against invasive exotic flora until 2025. The insular president, Pedro Martín, assures that “with this game we want to especially preserve the protected natural spaces of the Island, to avoid negative effects on native species.” The Island Corporation reserves exactly 3,560,000 euros in the next three years to fight against this scourge, as approved by the Governing Council.
The presence of this type of introduced flora is a serious problem that affects island biodiversity. The work will focus on the eradication of species present in the territory that are listed in the Spanish catalog as invasive exotics, as well as those with a demonstrated invasive nature on native species and natural and semi-natural habitats of Tenerife.
Pedro Martín appreciates that in order to face the task “medium-term planning is essential to consolidate these works over time and, in this way, achieve optimal results”. He assures that “among the main objectives of the Cabildo, as far as the environment is concerned, is the control and eradication of flora species that have appropriated the ecosystemharming its own and, even, the fauna ».
The annual breakdown provides for items of just over one million euros in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 budgets, now being formalized in a commission to the public company Gesplan.
For her part, the Minister of Natural Environment and Security Management, Isabel García, recalls that “the actions in the field will consist of manually starting, with the help of small tools, the specimens of these species and their transfer to the determined places for their disposal on the Island, avoiding at all times the dispersal by seeds and propagules”.
Besides the “planting of native flora species in the areas where it is considered appropriate to undertake environmental restoration after the control work”. Likewise, the presence of the crews will be used to remove the scattered or small-scale waste that may be found in the work areas, as a complementary task of environmental sanitation.
Support for scientists
On the other hand, workers will pay support in the preparation of experimental plots of the scientific tests that are carried out, in collaboration with the institutions, for the search of effective methods of control of the invasive exotic flora.
The Cabildo de Tenerife withdrew 670 tons of these invasive species throughout the insular geography during the year 2021. Among the different invasive species, the feather duster (Cortaderia selloana) and also the Indian prickly pear (Opuntia dellinii) stand out, which account for almost half (44.6%) of the total kilos removed from among 60 different plant species. The most popular, however, is the cat’s tail (Pennisetum setaceum).
