The La Laguna Cultural Heritage Area and Urban Planning Management are collaborating on initiatives to protect and promote the paleontological site of Punta de San Juanito, a fossilized beach from the last maximum interglacial period. Covering an area of approximately 20 square meters, this site provides a glimpse into what the coastline of La Laguna and its inhabitants looked like over 120,000 years ago.
The City Council has confirmed that safeguarding this important snapshot of the past is a key element of the ongoing restoration project for the Punta del Hidalgo coastline. Adolfo Cordobés, the Councilor for Cultural Heritage and director of Urban Planning Management, emphasises that this project aims to preserve the cultural heritage of the Punta coastline, incorporating its historical significance and social relevance. Furthermore, it presents an opportunity for the protection, research, and dissemination of this lesser-known paleontological site.
This site, a fossil beach, is comprised of consolidated sandstones featuring basaltic ridges. It contains a plethora of micromollusk shells and some notable macromollusks, including warm water species like the Tethystrombus coronatus and Gemophos viverratus.
The site also hosts rhodoliths, which are calcareous red algae nodules, along with a terrigenous deposit of clays and silts that house numerous shells of a terrestrial gastropod species, possibly the Hemicycla collarifera, which was endemic to the Anaga area and is now extinct.
To ensure its preservation, the Punta de San Juanito site has been integrated into the coastal restoration project with measures in place to prevent any interference during the execution of interventions. This restoration project, designed by the CF Cabrera-Febles Architecture, Landscape, and Urbanism studio, will involve comprehensive intervention in an area of approximately 50,000 square meters, focusing on the stretch beginning where Punta del Hidalgo’s urban area ends. This area shows great potential for regeneration and enhancing the preservation of its heritage resources.
The estimated cost of this project is just over 3.7 million euros, with the tender process set to commence upon receiving the mandatory report from the Coastal Authorities. The project has already received a favourable assessment from the Port Authority.
Putting an End to Decades of Environmental Damage
The City Council has highlighted that the core intervention involves removing and cleaning up the entire coastline, which has been subjected to decades of debris dumping and degradation due to various unregulated activities.
Clearing the deposited material in the supralittoral zone will allow the coastline to be restored inward and facilitate the ebb and flow of tides without any obstructions. This restoration will also help rejuvenate the marine ecosystem impacted by the debris, promoting biodiversity and the settlement of biological resources in newly revealed rock pools and rocks.
It’s worth noting that the area is home to a diverse range of species, including the brown algae Sargassum vulgare, classified as a Species of Interest for the Canary Islands Ecosystems (EIEC), and various bird species like Egretta garzetta, Numenius phaeopus, Charadrius hiaticula, Arenaria interpres, Calonectris diomedea, Phylloscopus canariensis and Cyanistes teneriffae, all listed under the “Special Protection Regime.” Included in the List of Wild Species in Special Protection Regime and the Spanish Catalog of Endangered Species.
In addition to the primary environmental recovery objective, the project serves a social function by providing a coastal area for public use. Cultural manifestations are incorporated into the project, reflecting human interactions with the landscape, historical context, and societal expectations.
An Escape to Nature’s Beauty
In addition to these crucial tasks, the project includes road surface rehabilitation, compaction to enhance accessibility, revegetation using native species, marking access points to the sea, burying existing electrical lines, enhancing the lighthouse space and its surroundings, and creating an integrated square near the San Juanito hermitage, among other initiatives.
