This time there are three hundred and seventy-two affected, but in some of the last few years there have been more than five hundred.?
? You may ask: who are they?, well, many of the people who are watching, in silence and fleeing from all protagonism, for the conservation of a landscape recognized as unique in the world.
They, mostly elderly people, dedicate themselves to cultivating the vineyard: they take care of its vegetative development throughout the annual cycle, dig the holes and replace the stones that have fallen from the walls that serve as shelter to the vines; to finally, if the harvest has been propitious, collect the grapes with the collaboration of family and friends.??This work is carried out giving faithful compliance to the mandate received, via legacy, from their ancestors "to take care of the vines", "to never abandon them".?
They are, in short, the gardeners of the best natural-artificial showcase that the island has and from which we all benefit.
In many tourist fairs, the island of Lanzarote will have been advertised showing as a claim the work carried out in La Geria by these winegrowers; however, how little has been recognized, because we almost never remember them. They have been feeling for too long that they are not given due attention. But, if you look closely you could see them in the early mornings going to and from their farms, or returning to their homes at noon with their eyes reddened by the sulfur applied to the vines, and also, other times, you can see how they face the effects of the cold in the pruning season, or those of a surprising drizzle in the middle of the field without having anywhere to take shelter, or how they suffer in the harvest the rigor of summer temperatures.? And so, they accumulate on their backs, day after day, these hard tasks with the sole objective as they say: "to keep the vines attended".?
?But, who are really these forgotten winegrowers??
Well yes, although it may not seem like it, they have names, surnames and personal vicissitudes. They are those that appear in the Order recently published by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of the Canary Islands, to whom aid for the maintenance of the vineyard has been denied provisionally, but we greatly fear that said rejection will become definitive. The denial of aid is justified by the Ministry of Agriculture in a bureaucratic problem in the operation of the viticultural registry, to which our winegrowers are totally alien, especially when many have submitted all their documentation in a timely manner.
However, in this latest publication it can be seen that the problems of the registry have been significantly resolved for the winegrowers of the other islands, while on the contrary the same does not happen with Lanzarote, given that a significant number of its winegrowers continue to be deprived of aid.?
The Regulatory Council of the Designation of Origin Vinos de Lanzarote as a consequence of this situation has been developing an commendable work in the preparation and presentation of hundreds of allegations and appeals against the denial of aid, without most of these writings having been answered. This has forced many winegrowers to have to present the corresponding contentious-administrative appeals before the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands in demand of their just claims.?
To understand the magnitude of the problem, it must be taken into account that these more than three hundred winegrowers represent 30% of those registered today in the Regulatory Council. But, if we extrapolate this data to the total number of hectares cultivated, we would see that its significance would be even greater, since approximately 450 hectares would be affected by the incidence of non-payment of aid, which could lead to the abandonment of more vine farms that would inevitably result in a greater deterioration of the island landscape. It is, therefore, a situation that, together with the increase in aid that has been demanded for some time, must be resolved if we want to aspire to have a more sustainable island and tourism.
We are facing an opportunity for the politicians of "here" to unite, regardless of their affiliation, in defense of the maintenance of the cultivation of the vines. All in order to guarantee the conservation of a heritage inherited from our ancestors that constitutes one of the main tourist attractions of the island of Lanzarote.?
Now is the time, tomorrow may be too late, since the lines of the POSEI and RDP are beginning to be drawn, which will contain the strategies of the primary sector for the period between 2021 and 2027.
It's in your hands. Don't say they can't; or is it that they don't see how the politicians of the rest of the Canary Islands unite when they have to act in defense of the primary sector of each of their islands. Think that it is a "historical and emotional" debt that we have to settle with the men and women who have cared for our land.
Insular Council of Lanzarote of PALCA-LA UNION
