Tag: Cabildo de Gran Canaria

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

The Canary Guide Día de Canarias #WeekendTips 26-28 May 2023

 
What an interesting last weekend of May ahead. Weather predictions are showing some rain showers are likely across Gran Canaria. This extended #WeekendTips covers up to Tuesday, when all things Canarian are celebrated on the Día de Canarias. There’ll be some gorgeous Patron Saints’ festivities happening in San Fernando de Maspalomas as well as in Valleseco.

Fun Fact:
Valleseco literally means “dry valley” in Spanish, but is actually one of the wettest municipalities Gran Canaria. Nestling between the famous fresh water sources of Firgas & Teror, half way up the island’s mountainous northern slopes, this area is well known for its apple growers, cider and its weekly market

Six weeks since the unexplained disappearance of Anna-Karin on Gran Canaria

The authorities on Gran Canaria have been engaged in a rigorous search for Swedish tourist Anna-Karin Bengtsson, who went missing in the south of Gran Canaria around April 9. Her unexplained disappearance has caused her family much distress, with no clues to her whereabouts having emerged in the six weeks since they first realised her phone was no longer functioning.

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 19-21 May 2023

 

An exciting May weekend ahead with abundant events and festivities taking place all around Gran Canaria. There are Patron Saints’ festivities for Motor Grande, in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, and in El Tablero in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana and up in the mountains of Artenara. There is also a two day lively exhibition event in Meloneras boulevard and the Rally Gran Canaria is held this Friday and Saturday.

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More than 3 million square meters of Güi-Güí is now publicly owned by Gran Canaria

The Cabildo de Gran Canaria island government has acquired, through auction from the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), a total of 2,852,630 square meters, in two plots, at the centre of the Güigüí Grande and Chico ravines, for €2,876,000. These lands join the ​​225,340 m2 purchased via the same procedure last January, for a total of 3,071,000 square meters, making the land public property.

#WeCrossMountains

In the two purchase projects the institution spent a total of €3.1 million, representing just 7.5% of the price requested at the time by the former owners, and one and a half million euros less than the appraisal that was carried out 13 years ago  commissioned by the Cabildo. Between the Cabildo owned land and local government municipal property, the majority of the accesible areas of the Güi-Güí Special Natural Reserve now becomes publicly owned, leaving several inaccessible areas and cliffs in private hands.
The president of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, explained in a visit this week, accompanied by technicians, representatives of the Tax Agency and journalists, just off shore from this spectacular wild part of Gran Canaria’s West Coast, that “Güi-Güí is part of our identity, as a landscape, as a symbol of the island, as [our] cultural and natural heritage” and the purchase of these plots is now a historical fact that brings to a close “a long struggle to guarantee protection for one of the places with the greatest natural and historical wealth on the island, which becomes everyone’s on Gran Canaria”.
The purchase was part of a strategic policy from the Cabildo de Gran Canaria to acquire land of special ecological and patrimonial value as a way to guarantee its conservation and protection. This operation will allow the organising of how the areas is used within the reserve, since the farmlands are located in the ‘heart’ of Güi-Güí, and used often by the Canarian population, in the surroundings of the natural beaches and old farming areas.
Güi-Güí, has three ecosystems in the same area, from pine forest, to thermophilic forest to the south and one of the most important cardonal-tabaibal enclaves in the world. Its environmental value exceeds the other national parks around the islands in the number of endemic species of flora, insects, reptiles, birds and marine fauna.
The “Montaña de los Cedros” is home to the only wild specimens of Canarian cedar on Gran Canaria, a population that has gone from just about 50 known specimens in 2003 to around 1,000 today, thanks to the Life Güi-Güí program that the Cabildo has been running since 2013, with funding from the European Union. The cedars are the last of the original forests that once populated this area, which were depleted by logging, and can now be regenerated in a natural way.
For all these reasons, Güi-Güí is a Special Natural Reserve, one of the largest existing protection categories, as well as a Special Conservation Area within ​​the Natura 2000 network. It is also part of the nucleus of the Bisofera Reserve of Gran Canaria and its coast conserves one of Gran Canaria’s two major sebadales, natural seagrass meadows, declared a Marine Reserve and Natural Eco System of National Interest.
Archaeological Teams have cataloged 18 sites within the Güi-Güí massif, including mines (one of them the largest obsidian quarry on the island) and/or sanctuaries like the Hogarzales mountain and Los Cedros. In addition, the area, due to its isolation, has meant little of the land has been in use and few people have settled there. Güi-Güí is inaccessible to road traffic, which is unusual on an island so densely populated,  offering a landscape very similar to how the island would have looked several centuries ago.
 

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The highest summits of Gran Canaria remain closed to traffic due to snow and bad weather

The Cabildo de Gran Canaria announced this Sunday that two roads up to the very highest point on the sub-tropical island, the GC-134 and GC-135, were to remain closed to traffic, for at least one more day, as they were still not deemed as safe, due to adverse weather conditions that have affected the area over recent days and hours.

Snow and hail storms this weekend across the mountainous interior of the island, and in particular at the highest summit, Pico de Las Nieves (Peak of Snows) have meant vehicles traveling through the area are in danger of sliding off the road, as has occurred, while members of the public, it is feared, may suffer falls or other accidents leading to injuries.
The Cabildo has decided this morning to keep roads like these two closed, to help guarantee public safety.

⛔️Recordamos que se mantienen cerradas la GC-134 y GC-135 en la cumbre de Gran Canaria@112canarias @GranCanariaOIAC
— Carreteras GC (@CarreterasGC) February 7, 2021

That all said, a video posted by Guardia Civil agents this morning from the highest point does show several people eager to catch a glimpse of the unusual weather, despite the roads closed to traffic they parked their cars and walked the last km or so up to the top to take a look for themselves, and from what we see here the snow appears to be melting quite quickly.

Esta mañana en el #PozoDeLasNieves #GranCanaria #FelizDomingo#GuardiaCivil #LasPalmas #Canarias #Allidondenosnecesites pic.twitter.com/3ClggmXMV3 — Benemérita Las Palmas (@GC_LasPalmas) February 7, 2021

With no more rain forecast for now, roads to the highest point are expected to officially reopen again from Monday.  Clear blue skies and rising temperatures are forecast to start the week across the island. With highs of 21ºC on the coasts and 15-16ºC in the higher altitude inland areas.

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The Canary News

Mogán kicks off Gran Canaria project for reforestation of ravines through the Green Forest Fund

The mayor of Mogán, Onalia Bueno, along with the councilors of Rural Development and Environment, Ernesto Hernandez, and Maintenance of Public Roads, José Martín, checking the improvement of the plot.
A 5,000 square meter public plot of Mogán land, next to the village of Veneguera, has been cleared specifically for tree planting after the summer. The projected has been financed with about €5,000 from the “Green Forestry Fund” of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria. Mogán has thereby become the first municipality on the Island to carry out ravine reforestation, as part of the the island government’s wider reforestation project.
Several tons of rubbish, solid waste and plant debris were removed along with remnants of the 2007 fire that occurred across the island and which had still not been removed, said a press release from the local town council.
Invasive species in the area, such as the tuneras cactus, have also been removed from the land.
After completing this first phase of clearing and removal of waste, the project will continue on this plot after the summer, when a second phase will begin, aimed specifically towards reforestation using native flora such as tabaibas, cardones and other indigenous seedlings. Waiting until after the summer season should help to ensure that the new plant life can be well established through the coming winter season.
The financing from the Green Forestry Fund also includes another clearing and reforestation of ravines project for the Mogán area around Las Filipinas, in the Barranco de Arguineguín.
Cardón Canario
Tabaiba

Seeking volunteers to help replant trees after the Gran Canaria fire…

Would you like to volunteer to help in the official reforestation effort on Gran Canaria?  The official Cabildo project is called Greening Gran Canaria.  The Canary is working with the Volunteer Network Gran Canaria, and the Nabojelpen project in Arguineguín, to organise community involvement from English speaking residents on the island, with transport funded by donations to The Long Walk 2017.
If you would like to be included in future communications regarding this effort, please email GreeningGranCanaria@TheCanaryGuide.com

The Cabildo has opened a reforestation project for Gran Canaria to citizen participation, with a calendar of actions that will begin in areas affected by last September’s wildfire. They expect exceed 20,000 volunteers given the interest shown by individuals, schools, companies and groups to get involved in Greening Gran Canaria
This was announced last week by the President of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, along with the Minister of Environment, Miguel Ángel, who added that the institution and the citizen collaboration will not only succeed in ensuring a greener island for future generations, but also create youth awareness of the importance to protect the environment.
For this ambitious plan, which goes far beyond the recovery from the fire, the Cabildo already has the €4.5 million Green Forestry Fund approved earlier this year, in addition to the €500,000 approved by the Canary Islands Government after the fire and €300,000 from the State.
The area affected by the fire is the one that needs a most immediate intervention, and in fact work to treat and prepare the land began as soon as the fire was declared fully extinguished, so as to stop the effects of erosion and to assess damages that the arrival of torrential rains could potentially create. If we only receive light rains this year it will allow the greenery to begin to sprout.
An area of 1,930 hectares affected by the fire has been assessed, leading to the conclusion that 70% is Canarian pine, where it may not be necessary to intervene at all, even reaching up toward 96% if urban or agricultural lands are included allowing for the initial interventions to be centered around the remaining 4% in need of direct intervention. On that basis Morales has calculated that they will concentrate reforestation efforts on around ten percent of the area, which supposes some 200 hectares or replanting and associated work.
20 members of the bravo teams began to prepare the ground for these actions, which are not only limited to planting, it also covers irrigation, cleaning and even sponsorship of plots.
Those who wish to participate in voluntary environmental actions only have to register at the webpage voluntariado (only in Spanish)
Individuals, neighborhood associations, business personnel and general volunteering is invited on Sundays between now and December 10, and then restarting again on Sunday January 14. 

 

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