The celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Timanfaya National Park, after twelve months dedicated to scientific dissemination and meeting with citizens, enters its final stretch with the celebration of the closing ceremony on October 3 at 12.30 hours in the Visitors and Interpretation Center of Mancha Blanca (Lanzarote).
The Minister of Ecological Transition and Energy of the Government of the Canary Islands, Mariano H. Zapata, will read a letter of the future for the Timanfaya National Park and the director-conservator of the park, Pascual Gil, will make a technical assessment of the scientific conclusions obtained throughout the year.
The event, which will also include the participation of the president of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort and other authorities, in addition to the presence of the speakers of the conferences, will conclude with the burial of a time capsule.
This steel container, which will be buried to transmit a message to future generations, will contain illustrations of endemic plants and animals that inhabit the National Park, a piece of microplastic collected on the park's coastline and a Timanfaya lava slag that was returned by a tourist who plundered it from the natural environment.
The objective is to convey a message of collective responsibility: it is vital to conserve this treasure of biodiversity that constitutes the Timanfaya National Park and make it last intact, since this volcanic territory shows a unique geology in the world that connects us with what we were and with what we can be.
During the last twelve months, a great effort has been made to transmit to the citizens all the knowledge accumulated in these fifty years of management and research in Timanfaya and the social networks of the park (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X and Whatsapp) have become a repository of knowledge available to all citizens.
Around 80 professionals from the scientific and academic world have participated in the presentations, conferences and discussion tables to talk about flora, fauna, interpretation of the natural environment, geothermal energy, invasive species, geology, ethnography, historical memory, architecture and public use of the Lanzarote park.
During this year, there has been a special effort to return the park to the citizens of Lanzarote, especially to the neighborhood of Tinajo and Yaiza, municipalities where the lavas extend and in which dissemination activities were held.
Next Friday, October 3, this important closing ceremony will be held to commemorate an event that has served to build bridges and lay the foundations for a future that guarantees the conservation and protection of the natural values of the park.
The event, for which an invitation is required, will be broadcast live through the Timanfaya National Park's YouTube channel.