Buscador principal

Garajonay: Conservation and biodiversity

Troncos cubiertos de musgo

In this page:

    The conservation of the natural environment.

    According to the Act creating the Park, the park administration has as its main objective ensuring the conservation of the natural and cultural resources, restoring damaged ecosystems, developing a system of public use that is compatible with the conservation of resources, effecting activities of interpretation and of environmental education which favour respect for the park on the part of the public, carrying out the necessary studies to guarantee a scientific base to the management and favouring the sustained development of the socio-economic surroundings of the Park.

    Problems of Conservation

    The main problems of conservation of the Park are:

    • Incomplete representation of the monteverde formations of the island. Outside the Park, there are natural woodlands of great quality deserving conservation which it would be advisable to include within the park. Furthermore, some types of woodlands are not well represented inside the Park.
    • Existence of degraded areas. About 13% of the Park corresponds to old plantations with exotic species or scrubland replacing the original woodland.
    • Invasion by exotic species. As a result of the favourable climatic conditions, there is a large proportion of exotic species. These are fortunately generally restricted to degraded and open areas but some show invasive behaviour.
    • Existence of a significant number of endangered species. Garajonay and its surroundings are considered to be the second area in Spain with the largest number of endangered species.
    • Forest fires represent the greatest risk to the conservation of the Park.
    • Increase in the pressure exercised by visitors. Although the pressure from visits is still moderate, the expectations of growth of tourism on the island mean that an increase in human pressure is foreseeable.
    • Existence of a significant network of roads in the Park, which complicates the control of visits.

    Items for Conservation

    Garajonay National Park has important items for conservation which can be summarised as follows:

    • Nature: The Park protects ancient woodlands which have hardly been affected by human activity.
    • Diversity of ecosystems: There are numerous types of woodland ecosystems as well as the rock and river ecosystems.
    • Endemicity: Although the diversity of the flora and fauna is not great as this is an island ecosystem, the level of endemicity being very high, with fifty species of flora being endemic to La Gomera and another 122 species endemic to the Canaries and regarding the fauna, there are 153 species endemic to La Gomera and another 327 endemic to the Canary Islands that have been described up to the present.
    • Rarity: The number of species included in the catalogue of species of flora that are endangered amounts to twenty-one. Furthermore, many species have a very much reduced distribution.
    • Representation: The Park protects over half of the ancient monteverde woodland in the Canary Islands.
    • Uniqueness: The Canarian monteverde is a residual ecosystem related to the extinct subtropical woodlands which covered the south of Europe and North Africa in the Tertiary Period.

    Restoration of degraded areas

    One of the priorities of the Park is the reconstruction of the original natural ecosystems in those areas which today are occupied by exotic species. The areas under restoration amount to about 500 hectares, concentrated in elevated areas on the southward facing side where the original vegetation was heather and myrtle (fayal-brezal).

    The elimination of the pines from plantings carried out in the 1960s which now occupy these areas is done by means of successive clearings (that is to say by gradually reducing the density), followed by repopulation with plants of autochthonous species under the protective cover of the pinewoods. The pines which are initially left standing to give protection to the new plants over the first few years are subsequently eliminated.

    In the areas covered by natural vegetation, human intervention is practically non-existent. Thus the woods evolve in a natural manner: the trees reach maturity and then die, decompose and all the material and energy goes back into the ecosystem. In Europe, where the majority of woodlands are intensely transformed, subject to human use, the forest in the Garajonay National Park is one of the few places where it is possible to visit woodland formations in a condition which is close to their original state.

    Recovery of the endangered flora

    Twenty-one species of plants which are catalogued as endangered live in Garajonay. In order to avoid their disappearance, the Park is carrying out a recovery programme which involves the conduct of studies to evaluate their populations and demographic tendencies, the genetics of the populations, the knowledge of their reproductive biology and of their environmental needs, possible threats, etc., which will serve to establish the lines of action that will be necessary. Some of these are reproduction in a nursery and subsequent increase of populations by means of planting, the adaptation of the habitat to reduce competition or to favour the natural regeneration of the plant, etc. Up to the present, the results have been highly promising with seven of the nine species with which work has been done.

    The struggle against fire

    Forest fires are the worst threat to the conservation of the park. In general, the environmental conditions and the characteristics of the vegetation in the interior of the Park do not favour fire spreading, but there are other factors which involve an increase in the risk, such as the existence of plant communities which are highly combustible surrounding the park (scrubland of laburnum and rockrose, as well as a rugged topography) which together with the dry summer, the presence of numerous inhabited areas around the park make it possible for fires to start and to spread.

    The struggle against forest fires is carried out in several different ways: on the one hand, by means of environmental education of the population, on the other, by means of prevention through the selective management of vegetation at strategic points so as to avoid the accumulation of combustible materials, and finally, by means of an extinction service made up of wardens and reserves as well as material resources such as fire-fighting trucks, etc..

    Research

    Research in a National Park is indispensable to obtain the knowledge necessary for proper management. The Park has regulations regarding research by other institutions and carries out its own studies in such different fields as climatology, vegetation, flora, fauna, ecology, public use, socio-economic environment, etc. What is more, currently a programme of ecological monitoring is being undertaken consisting of a permanent data collection network, the object of which is to find out about the operation and evolution of the ecosystem in the long term.

No existen resultados con los criterios de búsqueda

Introducción general al uso de cookies en el portal MITECO.gob.es

Las cookies son archivos que se pueden descargar en su equipo a través de las páginas web. Son herramientas que tienen un papel esencial para la prestación de numerosos servicios de la sociedad de la información. Entre otros, permiten a una página web almacenar y recuperar información sobre los hábitos de navegación de un usuario o de su equipo y, dependiendo de la información obtenida, se pueden utilizar para reconocer al usuario y mejorar el servicio ofrecido.

Tipos de cookies

Según quien sea la entidad que gestione el dominio desde donde se envían las cookies y trate los datos que se obtengan se pueden distinguir dos tipos: cookies propias y cookies de terceros .

Existe también una segunda clasificación según el plazo de tiempo que permanecen almacenadas en el navegador del cliente, pudiendo tratarse de cookies de sesión o cookies persistentes .

Por último, existe otra clasificación con cinco tipos de cookies según la finalidad para la que se traten los datos obtenidos: cookies técnicas, cookies de personalización, cookies de análisis, cookies publicitarias y cookies de publicidad comportamental .

Para más información a este respecto puede consultar la Guía sobre el uso de las cookies de la Agencia Española de Protección de Datos

Cookies utilizadas en la web

El portal web del Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico utiliza Google Analytics, esta es una herramienta de analítica que ayuda a los sitios web y a los propietarios de aplicaciones a entender el modo en que sus visitantes interactúan con sus propiedades. Se utilizan un conjunto de cookies para recopilar información e informar de las estadísticas de uso de los sitios web sin identificar personalmente a los visitantes de Google. Más información sobre las cookies de Google Analytics e información sobre la privacidad. Estas cookies que se pueden rechazar o aceptar ya que no interfieren en el funcionamiento del portal pero sirven de gran ayuda aportando Información que posibilita un mejor y más apropiado servicio por parte de este portal.

Por último, se descarga una cookie de tipo técnico denominada cookie-compliance, propia, de tipo técnico y de sesión. Gestiona el consentimiento del usuario ante el uso de las cookies en la página web, con el objeto de recordar aquellos usuarios que las han aceptado y aquellos que no, de modo que a los primeros no se les muestre información en la parte superior de la página al respecto. Esta cookie es de obligada utilización para el funcionamiento correcto del portal.

Aceptación / Rechazo de la Política de cookies

El Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico permite la aceptación o rechazo de las cookies no esenciales para el funcionamiento del portal. Para ello una vez que el usuario acceda al portal se mostrará un mensaje en la parte central con información de la política de cookies y las siguientes opciones: 

  • Aceptar cookies: Si el usuario pulsa este botón, se aceptarán los cookies no obligatorias y no se volverá a visualizar este aviso al acceder a cualquier página del portal.
  • Configurar cookies: Si el usuario pulsa sobre el botón de configurar, se accederá a una segunda ventana modal donde se podrá configurar que cookies aceptar. Esta segunda ventana explica las cookies utilizadas en la actualidad y permite la selección o rechazo de las cookies no obligatorias. Una vez finalizada la selección se deberá presionar al botón Guardar configuración.

Cómo modificar la configuración de las cookies

Usted puede restringir, bloquear o borrar las cookies del Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico o cualquier otra página web, utilizando su navegador. En cada navegador la operativa es diferente, la función de 'Ayuda" le mostrará cómo hacerlo.