SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 10 Nov (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands convened the Third Sustainable Canary Islands Meeting last Friday in El Sauzal, which in this edition discussed the concept of new rurality and facilitated the exchange of challenges and solutions to tackle the demographic issue.
The Conference, opened by the President of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, also featured representatives from the autonomous regions of Asturias and Castilla-La Mancha, as well as Spanish provinces such as Granada and Palencia,
The regions reached a consensus on the necessity for planning, analysis, and cooperative efforts to confront one of the predominant challenges facing Spain and Europe in the upcoming years. According to them, effectively addressing this concern involves fostering greater territorial cohesion and linking urban areas with rural settings; advancing in an organised and sustainable manner; and achieving agreement and continuity, as “depopulation is not simply a snapshot, but also a consequence of government policies.”
In this regard, the Canary Islands have embarked on a journey through working groups focused on the Demographic Challenge, which has produced a document outlining 51 measures intended to serve as a foundation for the forthcoming Conference of Presidents scheduled for this November.
Communities such as Asturias and Castilla-La Mancha, which possess notable experience in managing depopulation in Spain and have already implemented effective mechanisms and tools, such as the Asturian Demographic Impulse Law, commended the Canary Islands for taking proactive steps to address “what will undoubtedly be the significant challenge we encounter over the next fifty years.”
The General Director of Territorial Planning and Cohesion of the Government of the Canary Islands, Onán Cruz, was given the opportunity to introduce the inaugural Urban Local Rural Agenda to be developed in the Canary Islands, specifically on the island of La Palma. This initiative aims to tackle the primary challenges faced by municipalities, inspired by the revitalisation of rural areas and their integration with urban centres, providing sustainable solutions that can also be adapted to other municipalities in the Canary Islands facing similar structural, social, and economic challenges.
Policies concerning mobility, housing, support for the primary sector, essential services, digitalisation, the establishment of fiscal measures, the creation of collaboration zones, and a rethinking of territorial management to allow for larger populations in the more sparsely populated areas are key pillars for future work.
The mayors of the rural regions of the Canary Islands share this perspective, having participated in the Route 2030 panel, an initiative of the Government of the Canary Islands aligned with the 2030 Agenda, that aims to integrate innovation and sustainability into rural projects.
The panel included the mayor of La Frontera, Pablo Rodríguez Cejas; the mayor of Gáldar, Teodoro Sosa; the mayor of El Sauzal, Mariano Pérez Hernández; and the Councillor for Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries of Tinajo, Luis Pérez Berriel, who discussed various initiatives being undertaken in their municipalities that blend the primary sector with identity, tradition, and R&D&I.
For the mayors, the objective is to “solidify and expand the initiatives launched at the local level,” aiming for these efforts to become catalysts for the economy and prevent talent exodus.
In the final segment of the Conference, updates on projects and programmes led by the Government through the five pilot groups tasked with advancing the 2030 Agenda, established last January, were presented along with some of the 14 innovation projects devised by the two public universities of the Canary Islands, focusing on the search for innovative and sustainable solutions for the Islands.
