The counselor, who presided over the inauguration of the "Days of Pests and Diseases in Palm Trees" that are being held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, stated that the people of the Canary Islands "must be aware that we are going to have one more guest in the Canary Islands and we have to be constantly controlling it with the means that are known."
These Days are one of the measures put in place by the regional Administration to fight against this plague, offering information to professionals in the sector. The Government of the Canary Islands initiated a detection and eradication program three years ago, in which the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministries of Environment and Agriculture of the Canary Islands Government collaborate.
In this time, six million euros have been invested, in addition to the 12 million euros with which the Rural Development Plan that will be executed in the coming years is financed, explained Zaragoza. Within this plan, the preparation of a census of palm trees has begun, all the outbreaks have been detected, the affected palm trees have been destroyed and the nurseries have been controlled.
As specific measures, "the prohibition of the import of palm trees has been developed, especially those subject to contamination; the internal movement of palm trees has been restricted, greenhouses and outbreaks where we know the weevil is located are being controlled," added the counselor.
As a result of all these measures, 424 affected palm trees have been detected in the last three years. By municipalities, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Plazoleta de Farray and Ciudad Jardín 20 have been destroyed, in the municipality of Mogán, especially in the coastal areas, 105; in Fuerteventura, Caleta de Fuste, 261, in Costa Calma 67 and in Tuineje, 1.
For this reason, according to Zaragoza, "there is no new outbreak, the plague is controlled and we continue working" with 83 people integrated in different groups distributed throughout the Canary Islands".
And he insisted that "the red palm weevil plague is controlled in all the places where it has been detected", in addition to the fact that "right now the population level of the weevil is decreasing since we have not observed that it has spread to another place".
STATE COLLABORATION
The counselor took the opportunity to insist that the arrival of this plague to the Canary Islands occurred because "our doors are not well cared for" and that "all the phytosanitary inspection points in the Canary Islands have caused about 70 pests to enter the Islands in the last eleven years".
For this reason, the Government of the Canary Islands and specifically the Ministry of Agriculture are fighting in a special way to ensure that the "State Government collaborates more with us in this aspect", explained Zaragoza. For the moment "we only ask for collaboration, not powers", he added.
Since the current situation is that the Government of the Canary Islands has provided a large number of people who are dedicated to the internal surveillance of the plague, "sometimes without positive results" because "the entrances are not well controlled", added the counselor. We ask for "a little more affection from the central Government to avoid an environmental disaster", because "the control is simple, since everything enters us by boat".
ACN Press