The Extraordinary Plenary Session of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has definitively approved, in its session this Wednesday, the regulatory bases for the granting of subsidies to the agro-systems of the wine-growing area of La Geria, after the public exhibition period.
This unanimous approval of the plenary culminates a processing process initiated to promote the active conservation of the wine-growing landscape of La Geria, a unique and protected enclave of enormous cultural, agricultural and environmental value for the island.
The president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, also Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Oswaldo Betancort, has assured that “with this historic definitive approval we are taking a key step to guarantee the future of the landscape of La Geria and those who work it day by day. This line of aid is a recognition of the effort of our winegrowers, who not only preserve an ancestral way of life, but also protect one of Lanzarote's most valuable heritages.”
In addition, the island's leader has thanked all the political groups that make up the island's plenary for the support shown for this novel subsidy and the congratulations received for the initiative. Betancort has also pledged to continue working to achieve an autonomous commitment that enables a permanent financial sheet for this line of support.
The subsidies will be aimed at natural or legal persons who cultivate vines within the Protected Natural Space of La Geria and commit to preserving traditional cultivation methods, such as the use of holes and the rofe layer, for the established time. The mandatory period for maintaining conservation work will be three years after justification of the aid.
A support line of 800,000 euros
The approved bases respond to the granting by the Government of the Canary Islands of a direct subsidy of 500,000 euros, intended to support winegrowers who contribute to the sustainability of the agricultural landscape of La Geria. To this amount, the Cabildo of Lanzarote, in its permanent commitment to the sector, will add own resources until reaching 800,000 euros, which will finally be the investment in this novel line of economic support aimed at farmers.
The concession procedure will be non-competitive, guaranteeing maximum transparency and efficiency in the distribution of resources.
The full text of the bases will be published soon in the Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas. The forecast handled by the Island Agricultural Service of the Cabildo is to launch the call at the end of next September.
La Geria: a world treasure
Awarded this year by the FAO as an Important System of World Agricultural Heritage (SIPAM), the Protected Natural Space (ENP) of the Landscape of La Geria was declared in 1987 as “Natural Park of La Geria”’ and reclassified in 1994 as a protected landscape by Law 12/1994, of December 19, on Protected Natural Spaces of the Canary Islands.
This landscape covers 5,255.4 hectares of the municipalities of Tinajo, Yaiza, Tías, San Bartolomé and Teguise, its purpose of protection being the preservation of the traditional agricultural landscape. The vineyard is the majority crop in surface on the island of Lanzarote.
Its cultivation takes place in unique agro-systems in the world. The area of La Geria is the wine-growing space par excellence of the island where more than 75% of the surface area dedicated to this crop is located.
According to data from the regulatory document of this ENP, this territory has an area of 2,959 hectares of vineyard as a single crop where two types of agro-systems are located: cultivation in natural sands and cultivation in artificial sands.
According to the agro-system, the vineyard is planted in holes of different physiognomy (height, diameter, etc.) or in ditches (the current Government team has shown its intention to also enable aid to the ditch in the near future).
