The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Pedro Martín, announced this Tuesday that in October the regeneration of the 2,700 hectares that were burned in the fire that in July affected the municipalities of Los Realejos, San Juan de la Rambla, La Guancha and Icod de los Vinos.
At a press conference, Pedro Martín explained that after that act the island government council would meet to agree to allocate 1,600,000 euros to the regeneration of the burned area, and stressed that the work will begin about two months after the fire started. and “few” weeks after being declared extinct.
The money that the Cabildo de Tenerife will allocate to finance the regeneration plan will be joined by contributions from the Spanish and Canarian governments, with which it will reach 4,616,000 euros, Pedro Martín has indicated.
The works will be approved urgently, so that “if all goes well” they will begin in October, and Pedro Martín has indicated that 1,628,000 euros will be allocated for the regeneration of the burned area this year, while the amount will be of almost 2 million euros in 2023 and around 1 million euros in 2024.
Pedro Martín has pointed out that with these works it is intended that when there is a fire of the characteristics of the one that occurred in July, it will not be necessary to wait for “winter to begin the recovery of the lost forest mass”.
The president of the Cabildo de Tenerife has asked that a misfortune such as a forest fire be made an opportunity, and has added that the actions will consist of eliminating the dry material and the vegetation that is easily combustible, to replace it with one that delays the combustion.
In addition, tree vegetation such as barbuzano, viñátigo and Canarian cedar will be incorporated into the area affected by the fire, which will repopulate the devastated areas and at the same time encourage them to be native trees.
Another line of action will be the protection of forest tracks and actions to prevent landslides in case of rain.
Pedro Martín has insisted that it is about not waiting for nature to do the work of recovering the territory.
As for whether the fire was caused intentionally, the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife has acknowledged that in his opinion it has been, but has added that the Civil Guard continues with its investigations.
Pedro Martín has said that in the Civil Guard there is concern about finding who has caused it, if it was started intentionally.
From the insular corporation, the regeneration plan will be transferred to the four affected municipalities, and the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife has said that “it is enough of administrations that promise” that the solutions will be studied, and has proposed changing the meetings, the proposals , ideas and projects for work.
In this way he has concluded with the approach of “let’s put the money to work to save the mountains, and then the meetings will come”.
