RURAL GROUP, 29th of April, 2011

Today, we have visited the saltpans called Salinas de Tenefe. These saltpans were established at the end of the 18^th century in order to supply salt to the fishermen fishing near the African coast. Nowadays, they are the most important saltpans on the island and cover an area of approximately 20 000 m². The salt production is very efficient, so the outcome is 300 000 kg of salt per year. In 2005, Punta de Tenefe saltpans were declared cultural heritage and the visitor’s centre was founded. There visitors can get informed about the history, production and significance of the saltpans. Even though the salt production is quite high, the island is not self-sufficient and salt import is needed. In the afternoon, we have visited a tomato museum “La Zafra”. There, we could overview the whole production process and history of tomato. Tomato was one of the most important crops in Gran Canaria, however, recently the production of tomato has decreased.

RURAL GROUP, 28th of April, 2011

The rural group dedicated the second day of field work to diverse rural activities. Our first stop was banana plantations near the city of Vecindario. This settlement was created due to nearby banana plantations and indicates the importance of banana in the 19^th century. Secondly, we visited an agricultural cooperative in the municipality of Santa Lucia. It is a good example of marketed-oriented cooperative which is selling their variety of crops (peppers, watermelons, melons…) to supermarket Mercadona. They employ 14 workers, mainly foreigners, and are rentable only because of subventions.

Our next stop was the Institute for Agriculture investigation which has been founded recently. Their main subject of investigation is tomato. This centre has several researchers which are working under the contract. This institute deals with several projects. They are trying to find the best conditions in which to grow tomato. Moreover, parts of the fields are dedicated to ecological farming. One of the most important activities of this Institute is also the preservation of biodiversity. Basically, they are collecting and preserving seeds of traditional plants from local farmers from all over the island.

SOCIAL GROUP, 29th April 2011

Today we have been finishing our field work. We split in two groups, three of us went to Mogán old town, and other two went to Arguineguín. In Mogán we interviewed the director of Tahoma Club, a local association which also is the main social group on town. They are doing many activities from dancing parties to theater workshops. Probably the most important thing is we were told about integration of immigrants. They have some of them, from different countries (UK, Germany, Sweden, Danemark, Norway, Portugal, Morocco or Brazil), and what is more important, they are totally integrated. We were told how local people are more interested in them, in their culture, so that helps to complete a full integration in a diverse local society. Also, they are cooperating with other clubs, like Mogán Bonito –situated in Playa de Mogán- or the Norwegian club, in Arguineguín. It is this place where the other two of us went. We were talking with the Norwegian church priest, and it was really helpful to understand how they are organized. There is a whole community of Norwegians living in Arguineguín and places around, many of them due to climate conditions –and usually as a consequence of healthy problems-. They are owners of shops, bar and pubs, and are trying to integrate in local society. That, in turn, could be difficult, because they are so many that if they want to, they can live in their own, without mixing with local culture, for not saying some of them do not know the Spanish language. All of this is already helping us to make the final report and the further presentation which will be most likely tomorrow.

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP, 27th April 2011

Dunas de Maspalomas

The main subject of the day consisted in finding possible explanations regarding the formation of the Dunas de Maspalomas, as well as identifying solutions in order to stop or decrease the losses within the system. Although the origin of the dunes has been a controversially debated subject, research developed in the last decades offered answers regarding the main factors that determine a cycle of events. The physical configuration of the dunes seems to be a result of variable parameters as wind speed, oceanic currents direction, urbanization gradient, etc.

Recent studies revealed that the dunes cycle suffers losses in average of 42.000 m³/year. As the dunes are a very important touristic resource (2,5 million tourists/ year visiting Maspalomas, out of 3,2 million visiting the entire island), measures to limit the losses have been taken into consideration. One of these measures refers to supplying the system with large quantities of sand brought from the bottom of the sea. The main disadvantage of this proposal consists in the sand size of one of the submarine deposits, with very different dynamic characteristics that interfere with the natural movement rhythm of the dunes. Another possible solution is related to relocation of sand masses within the system, in order to balance the quantity level. This refers to extracting the excessive mass of sand out of the accumulation areas and relocating it at the beginning of the process, so that sand is recycled and therefore losses are avoided.

Considering the complexity of the cycle and its informational gaps, it is extremely difficult to identify optimal solutions and to forecast scenarios about the system dynamics after external interferences. However, the growing touristic market associated with the increase of human pressure demand an integrated management concept of the area.

Photos By Marko Krevs.

IP2011 Canary Islands – Photos from Marko

Places: https://picasaweb.google.com/117574642652569654231/IP2011CanaryIslandsSelectedPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCPDJjeiXlqG3zAE#

People: https://picasaweb.google.com/117574642652569654231/IP2011People?authkey=Gv1sRgCNzj9M7qk8e-VQ#

These two have to be in separate folders (resulting in extra links) due to problems with the uploading from camera … but so the GPS information is kept with the photos – so you can see the locations of the photos in the low right corner of the Picasa web page.

Anaga: https://picasaweb.google.com/117574642652569654231/Anaga?authkey=Gv1sRgCIyeq4a7q9nNTg#

La Laguna: https://picasaweb.google.com/117574642652569654231/LaLaguna?authkey=Gv1sRgCMKwwY3_9_qxqwE#

SOCIAL GROUP, 28th April 2011

Today we proceed as yesterday, with a first meeting early in the morning to keep clear our ideas. After this we continued with our field work, so we were driven to municipality of Mogán. We first stopped in Patalavaca looking for the Norwegian community. We found the Norwegian school near Arguineguín, to be precise in Aquamarina neighbourhood. We were told a bit how they are organized and we were suggested to go to Arguineguín for a meeting with the priest of the Norwegian church of Gran Canaria. We did not manage to talk to her today, but we made an appointment for tomorrow. We continued the field work in Mogán, where we spoke with the people from the main social club and officials, municipality workers, in order to get data that could help us to figure Mogán’s social structure for our upcoming presentation. We did not manage to get it, despite we will como tomorrow due to Mogán’s architect is going to give us the ongoing Master Plan. In the social club we got data about why and when this was established, which people are integrated there and how they include immigrants to their social activities. Finally, we had a brief interview with the Social Issues Office, who, among other things, told us how Norwegian community is cooperating with them, with the municipality. The Social Club for old people and the mayor, besides the priest, could not be localized.

ECONOMY GROUP 28TH OF APRIL 2011

Today we had an interview with the responsible person from the office of the planning institute of the municipality of San Bartolomé. We found out that the use of water is arranged by the Law of the use of water, which requires that the water used for gardens and golf surfaces has to be the purified water. 90 % of the purified water is used for it, and the rest ends up in the sea.
The most interesting fact is that the whole economy is actually based on the petrol. Because the 98 % of the energy they get from thermal power plant and the 2 % from wind power plants. According to her, they don’t have any alternative plan, the only innovations in the system are more wind power plants, but we know that there is an important proyect with the reservoir of Chira. Also they won’t decrease the dependency of the prices of petrol.

About the touristic dates she told us that there is a problem with the three administrations that control the competences in tourism: Canary Government, Patronato and the city hall of the different tourist points. In many cases there is a lack of understanding between these three organs and because of this many mistakes in the public planning can be and were made.

Finally she explained the changes in the demand of the tourism: in about 2000 we could divide the offer of accommodation in about 70% of extrahotels offer and 30% of hotels. Nowadays, these numbers are more equilibrated because an important share of touristic apartments were being sold and now more than 16000 citizens live there. It causes a big problem because there was no previous planning that can resolve things like parking places, garbage and the problem of the town-planning indiscipline. This final problem means that many people who bought touristic apartments are not prepared to be used like a primary housing and they try to increase the surface making illegal works that damage the landscape.

We are in the newspapers...

http://www.maspalomasahora.com/2011/04/27/estudiantes-europeos-investigan-en-maspalomas-la-gestion-del-territorio-insular/

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP, 27th April 2011

Today we visited the “Jardín Canario”, a botanical garden, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. There we got an insight in the high vegetation diversity and the different types of associations. These four types are the coastal vegetation (Euphorbia canariensis, Euphorbia balsamifera, Euphorbia aphylla), thermophile vegetation (Phoenix canariensis, Dracaena draco, Pistacia lenstiscus, Olea europaea, Rumex lunaria), laurisilva (Laurus azorica, Apollonias barbujana, Persea indica, Arbutus canariensis, Erica arborea, Myrica faya) and pine forest (with Pinus canariensis). Also introduced plant species, like Agave americana, Opuntia ficus barbarica, Opuntia dillenii and Nicotiana glauca, are exhibited at the botanical garden.

SOCIAL GROUP, 27th April 2011

Our group met in the hotel lobby to discuss our feature research. The goal of the day was finding final hypothesis of our research. We went to Mogan where we started collecting data. At first we were in the statistical department of Municipality of Mogan. They gave us data about inhabitants and immigrants to Mogan municipality.

On the base of this data we tried to find how immigrants are integrated in the society of Mogan and surrounding. We were in the cemetery. We did an short visits to Cultural centre, police station, the school of Mogan and Puerto de Mogan.

In the afternoon we discussed about what we find out so far. We finally presented our ideas to our teachers. In next two days will focus on Norwegian community in municipality of Mogan and social life in different clubs.

SOCIAL GROUP, 26th April 2011

Visit to central-east side of Gran Canaria. Tamadaba’s pine forest and dams area.

Today we did a circle trip through central mauntains area of Gran Canaria. The first stops were dedicated to physical geography. From a social geography point of view we saw an cultivated valley with oasis. In the village Tunte we saw a large number of water-accumulating tanks for collecting rain water. In Tunte there were interesting terraces for agriculture.

On our way to Artenara we stopped at the accumulation lake with a dam. The water is used for production of electric energy. The power plant has a unique system of water circulation, that produces more energy. We have discussed issues regarding water distribution on the Islands.

In Artenara we discussed historical economic and identity crises in Spain. We continued to Tamadaba pine forest, where we had a beautiful view on port of Agaete and surrounding area. On the way back to Maspalomas we had a stop in Mogan and Playa de Mogan to get an idea about the research area on which we will be focusing in the incoming days.