GATOS TEIDE COLONY | Two companies will manage the feral cat colonies on Teide

Public and private

The aid is divided between those that support initiatives by business entities, individuals and non-profit institutions and those intended for local corporations. Among the first, the Micello project – takes its name from the vegetative apparatus of fungi – receives 10,000 euros, 50% of its cost, to develop a management plan for feral cats that promotes “the care and development of the Areas of Socioeconomic Influence in the areas of Icod de los Vinos and La Guancha. For its part, Veterinary Services 2016, whose registered office is in the municipality of La Orotava, will have 4,327 euros of public money in the “Feline management program for the prevention of incidents on threatened species.”

hunting prohibited

Last July, the Canary Islands, in one of the last measures taken by socialist José Antonio Valbuena’s team in the area of ​​Ecological Transition, prohibited the hunting of feral animals such as dogs, cats or ferrets. The draft of the new Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG) of the Teide National Park – last July concluded the long period of public exhibition to present allegations – does not introduce, according to the sources consulted, new methods of control and eradication of invasive animals , like cats, which pose a threat to the protection of the endemic flora and fauna of this protected natural area. The commitment of groups and people with an animalistic approach from the start involves the use of the so-called CER (Capture, Sterilization and Return) method to reduce the colonies of wild cats established throughout the National Park environment. That compared to the “recreational hunting activity” on Teide.

Invasive exotic species

Feral cats are considered one of the 100 most harmful invasive alien species in the world. A team from the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CESIC) recently published, on July 6, an article in which these animals are considered a threat to the fauna and ecosystem of the Canary Islands and, specifically, its national parks. like that of Teide. They urge that legislation be modified to address the danger that these animals represent for island biodiversity. This scientific work establishes that in island ecosystems, cats have been involved in 14% of the extinctions of birds, mammals and reptiles, as well as in the decline of 8% of those classified as critically endangered.

Training and recovery

The rest of the projects subsidized by the Government of the Canary Islands in the AIS of the Teide National Park have a formative foundation and ethnographic recovery. This is the case of the private initiative (La Barca Verde Ecocultural Association) to develop the III Conference on Resilient Actions against climate change in island territories. You receive 16,963 euros, 100% of the initial amount planned. In the public sphere, the subsidies benefit four projects from three municipalities. The one in Santiago del Teide, with 100% of what was requested, obtains a response in two of the initiatives. On the one hand, prepare the Camino de las Cuevitas, on the Route of the Volcanoes in the municipality of Santiago (79,998 euros); on the other, the idea of ​​recovering ethnographic elements in the town of Arguayo (76,322 euros). Vilaflor de Chasna, for its part, achieved 91.8% of the financing (80,000 euros) for the informative and interpretive itinerary of the Huerta Grande, Bosque Verde y Productivo with the aim of enhancing the values ​​of the Teide National Park (87,108 euros). To these three projects we must add the conditioning and improvement of the La Florida sports space in Icod de los Vinos, included in the item, which amounts to 61,412 euros, 45.9% of the 133,560 total cost.

“Lack of credits”

Six projects from five municipalities, for a total value of 565,528 euros, do not receive the requested regional subsidy due to “exhaustion of available credits”, according to the arguments published in the BOC. Two of the initiatives correspond to Los Realejos, the repaving of Lomo Márquez and El Terrero streets (198,417 euros in total and 80,000 requested) and the widening and paving of Lomo Juan de la Guardia street (189,382 and 80,000 euros, respectively). The aid requested by Garachico of 57,715 euros for the Repaving of the Camino Madre del Agua, budgeted at 59,003 euros, was also not accepted. The same occurs with the Conditioning of La Tahona Beach, in San Juan de la Rambla, a council that requested 74,452 euros out of the 84,804 total. The Fasnia City Council’s commitment to rural signage, valued at 14,727 euros, does not receive a subsidy (100%) like that of Guía de Isora with the title of Dissemination of the natural, cultural and ethnographic values ​​of the Teide National Park (19,195 euros).

Denied

Another six grants requested to be developed in the area of ​​the AIS of the Teide National Park were rejected as they were “non-eligible” activities because, according to the argument of the general directorate, they did not comply with the bases of the call for the 2023 financial year. It is the case of Güímar en flor (City Hall of Güímar), Las Abiertas leisure and sports space (City Hall of Icod de los Vinos), Inventory project of tourist resources of the municipality of La Guancha, Replacement of the exterior carpentry of the Casa de La Alhóndiga (City Hall of San Juan de la Rambla), Eradication of Cats in the Protected Areas of Tenerife (Adepac Association) and Ellas wise gomeras/She wise footprints (project by Rut Gómez Linacero).