The Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the Biodiversity Service, will develop the 'Scouts Project' in the islands of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma and La Gomera to detect the effects of climate change on habitats and species of community interest in these territories, with special attention to the Natura 2000 Network.
The regional minister responsible for the Area, José Antonio Valbuena, explained that "this experimental project, which had already started in El Hierro, has a team of two biologists, specialized in botany and zoology, with previous knowledge of the territory in each of the non-capital islands." "The five teams will make foot tours of Special Conservation Zones, Special Conservation Zones for Birds or Habitats of Community Interest for analysis and data collection," he added. These works will be repeated every year to detect the effects of climate change and take preventive actions for the future.
In this regard, the regional government states that, in recent decades, the Canary Islands has recorded increasingly frequent anomalous climatic events that reflect an increase in temperature in the islands. "The effects of this warming can cause changes in the distribution of many wild species, variations in hydrological cycles, expansion of exotic species, etc. This is the case of species of centennial trees or different age groups that have not survived the changes in climate," it is detailed.
Through the 'Scouts Project', information is also obtained on the impacts on the natural environment derived from human activity, including the accumulation of garbage, waste or abandoned packaging and spills, as well as population centers of exotic species, to carry out short-term actions that enable their disappearance, since they "compromise the conservation status of our habitats and species of community interest and the integrity of the Natura 2000 Network."
These works are part of the ERDF Operational Program (2014-2020) and the public company for Territorial and Environmental Management and Planning (Gesplan) is responsible for its execution. This assignment is promoted by the Biodiversity Service of the General Directorate for the Fight against Climate Change and the Environment, and the technicians of this service are the ones who design and supervise the works.
The development of a data collection protocol for the monitoring of the natural areas of the Natura 2000 Network in the Canary Islands and its implementation will allow homogenizing this task in all the islands for the realization of the six-year reports with the updated information of these habitats and species of community interest, with special attention to the protected terrestrial species for their transfer to the central Government.
On the other hand, distribution studies will be carried out with updated information on protected terrestrial species in areas of the Natura 2000 Network, which will include inventories and particular studies of species of community interest.
