RURAL GROUP, 26th of April, 2011

DAILY REPORT (26.04.2011)

Today we have visited the midlands of the South of Gran Canaria. The landscape of the hinterlands is entirely different from the coast area and also from the Northern rural areas of Tenerife. The southern region of the island receives less precipitation which can be seen in the vegetation. Pinus canariensis are much more disperse due to the lack of water. Afterwards we visited a typical rural village called Tunte. We could see how people adapted to the local conditions. Fields are located on landslide slopes where fertile soils can be found. Because of unequal annual rain distribution agriculture is based on irrigation system by using water stored in reservoirs. Agriculture is composed of vegetable, mango, avocado or citrus production that is transported and sold in Las Palmas. In addition to agriculture, in the 90’s the village has begun to develop sustainable rural tourism with the financial aid of the European Union program named LEADER.

In order to protect both the local traditions and natural resources, they have established several natural parks; Nublo rural park, Tamadaba natural park and Las Cumbres protected landscape. Since 2005, the whole municipality of Artenara was converted to World biosphere reserve.

One of the most important agriculture areas is located in the NW part of the Island. The landscape is dominated by greenhouses in which they grow bananas, mangos and tomatoes.