The president of the Nationalist Parliamentary Group, David Toledo, expresses his satisfaction after the commitment acquired this Friday by the Minister of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mariano Hernández, to allocate one million more euros from the Canarian Executive to the recovery of the palm grove of Lanzarote; an amount that would be added to what the Cabildo of Lanzarote already contributes.
“The Cabildo and the Ministry already contribute one million euros per institution, and now both institutions will each contribute another extra million. In other words, we will have a total of four million to recover one of our hallmarks”, explains the nationalist parliamentarian, who has stressed that for an island like Lanzarote, where vegetation is scarce, but palm trees have been and are a clear hallmark in many municipalities of the island, the affectation suffered by the palm groves by the Diocalandra “worries us and occupies us a lot”.
“Therefore, after many ups and downs and modifications, it was possible to commission a study with co-financing between the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Environment and the Island Council itself”, Toledo insisted during his intervention in the Ecological Transition Commission, mentioning the meeting that Hernández himself recently held with the Councilor of the Biosphere Reserve of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Samuel Martín.
It should be remembered that in the first period of the aforementioned study, the palm trees located in the municipalities of San Bartolomé, Tías and Yaiza were inspected and, in a second period, those located in the municipalities of Tinajo, Arrecife, Haría and Teguise, where La Graciosa is included.
With the analysis carried out and after completing these studies, a “Plan for the control and eradication of Diocalandra in the palm trees of Lanzarote” is executed for a period of 4 years, 2022-2026. However, David Toledo points out “it was necessary to modify the agreement and the procedure will not be completed until October 23, 2023”.
The Lanzarote parliamentarian pointed out in his speech that the delay in the execution of the plan was due to a “misguided management” by the previous government and appreciates the commitment of the Minister of Ecological Transition to continue co-financing 50% with the Cabildo of Lanzarote the solution to a problem that worries Lanzarote a lot.
