The Plenary of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has approved this Tuesday to initiate the process to declare the camel livestock of the island as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC) of intangible character, a declaration that includes living practices and expressions inherited from our ancestors and transmitted to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social uses, rituals, festive acts, knowledge and practices related to nature and the universe, and knowledge and techniques linked to traditional crafts.
The Department of Agriculture, coordinated by President Oswaldo Betancort, proposed to the Historical Heritage Service to initiate the procedures to obtain said declaration given the outstanding historical and landscape values of the camel culture on the island, for which it has been agreed to initiate and instruct the declaration procedures of BIC, which will be submitted to the Government of the Canary Islands for resolution, as well as the procedures for the removal and modification of these assets, since adequate safeguard measures need to be taken.
"The objective is to protect the figure of the camel and recognize the invaluable work that this noble animal has carried out for the inhabitants of Lanzarote, actively participating for five centuries in the development of this landscape, which today is the biggest tourist attraction of our island," considers Betancort.
The Canary Island camel is an autochthonous breed, which means it is unique in the world, and the island's camel livestock is the most important in Europe, so we want to guarantee its survival in a year as significant as this, since next June 22nd is World Camel Day, with the aim of recognizing its role in the face of the effects of climate change in the area where it lives, and this year 2024 has been declared as the International Year of Camelids by the United Nations with the purpose of raising awareness among the population and governments around the world about the importance of the economic and cultural contribution of camelids in the lives of the people.
Camelids play an important role in progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals related to the fight against hunger, the eradication of extreme poverty, the empowerment of women and the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. They provide milk, meat and fiber for the communities, serve as a means of transporting goods and people, provide biological fertilizer and adapt very well to places where other species of livestock would not survive.
"In this sense, the International Year of Camelids represents a unique opportunity to raise awareness about the role that camelids have in generating resilience to climate change, especially in arid and semi-arid areas and lands," adds Betancort, recalling that the camel has been the "great survivor of inhospitable lands throughout the world and who allowed the first European colonies to have a viable economy in the semi-arid lands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura".
Currently, with the development of transport and new machinery for agriculture and livestock, our Canary Island camel has been removed from these strenuous tasks and we see it collaborating and sharing its efforts with the new booming tourist activity of the Canary Islands.
Its bearing and resistance, at the service of this new and playful tourist activity, should not make us forget the great debt we have contracted with the exceptional Canary Island camels, protect the memory of such arduous collaboration of centuries and allow it not to fall into oblivion of future generations.
Union of the camel sector
Precisely, after the meeting held this Monday with the representatives of the sector, the president of the Cabildo was "deeply satisfied to hear their demands and inform them that the process has been initiated to declare them an Asset of Cultural Interest of intangible character, and to promote associationism among all the owners so that they join forces when it comes to obtaining financing to continue with a project so important for the island of Lanzarote, which guarantees the general generational replacement of this activity".
For his part, the vice president of the Canary Island Camel Association, Francisco Mesa, as a representative of the sector, recognized that "the fact that the owners are not united, limits us a lot when it comes to being able to grow as a sector, and I believe that we owe it to our ancestors, who developed a fundamental role with these animals, leading it to have the most important livestock in Europe, and now we must modernize and move towards the creation of an island association and achieve objectives such as declaring tourist walks in Timanfaya as cultural heritage and demonstrate that we are a sustainable sector".
"This meeting with the president of the Cabildo has inspired a lot of confidence, and we left with the desire to create that association, which both he and I have committed to making a reality in this International Year of Camelids, constituting what will be the first island camel association in Lanzarote," he added.
