Photos: Sergio Betancort
Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park opened the doors this Monday to the "most innovative" environmental classroom in the Canary Islands. A "powerful facility" equipped with the latest technologies in which visitors can take a trip to the past, to about 35 million years ago, to learn how Lanzarote emerged between fire, sea and wind and immerse themselves in the seabed together with the species that have inhabited and inhabit the island.
The space, aimed at disseminating and raising awareness, especially among schoolchildren, recreates the interior of a volcanic cave with an "initiation of lava" included, in which, through different rooms, visitors can enjoy large-format 4K projections, light effects and immersive sound systems, which create real-time experiences with interactive stations that delve into the visual information presented on a tour of more than an hour, which will be free.
In addition, schoolchildren will be able to live the "experience" of spending the night "in sleeping bags" inside the environmental classroom, from which they will also be able to observe the dolphins that live in the Rancho Texas Lanzarote dolphinarium.
Lanzarote's relationship with nature and its role as a Biosphere Reserve are also highlighted in this environmental classroom, whose visit ends in an awareness area, where the importance of caring for the planet and keeping the beaches clean is highlighted. "How do you prefer your planet? Think globally, act locally", it reads.
Commitment to education, research and conservation
"And what you have just seen is only a part of what the place can be. Today he has told us a story about the island of Lanzarote, but tomorrow he can tell us another story", said the owner of Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park, Nicolás López, who stressed that he wanted the inauguration to coincide with International Mother Earth Day. "The fragility of our Mother Earth is evident. Recognizing this situation also becomes our objective and we want to raise awareness of it by educating as well", he stated.
"It is also a special year, the centenary of César Manrique, a precursor of sustainability as a man of the future that he was", added Nicolás López, who pointed out that Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park "wants to continue being a benchmark as a leisure space for complementary tourism, but without forgetting the commitment to education, research, sustainability and conservation".
For his part, Antonio Fernández, Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Las Palmas, a center with which Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park has signed a collaboration agreement, highlighted the importance of putting "technology at the service of animal welfare" and, in this sense, he stressed that the environmental classroom inaugurated this Monday is "the most innovative in the Canary Islands".
A space "that places us at the forefront"
"It is a space that places us at the forefront", said the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Isaac Castellano, who considers that the investment of more than four million euros carried out by Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park to launch the environmental classroom "brings tremendous value". "We cannot ignore that Rancho Texas is a reference space", said Castellano, who emphasized the importance of awareness "to preserve" the resources that exist in the archipelago.
In this same sense, the president of the Cabildo, Pedro San Ginés, stated that "zoos are called, if they want to survive, to be "sanctuaries" in which to "raise awareness and educate about the importance of conserving habitats". "In short, as in all areas of life, to what it means to respect, which is to know, because knowledge is the basis of respect", he said.
"This municipality and this island, with this project and with all those that have been carried out, owe you, and I in particular, gratitude", said the mayor of Tías, Pancho Hernández.
Lorenzo Van Fersen, president of Yaqu Pacha, an NGO that works to reduce threats to aquatic mammals that inhabit South America, with which Rancho Texas Lanzarote Park collaborates, also spoke at the event, which was attended by numerous authorities and representative members of the conejera society.
