Human influences on the pine and laurel forests of the Canary Islands

Abstract

From the early Spanish establishment on the better-watered western Canary Islands the endemic pine (Pinus canariensis) and laurel (Laurus spp. ) forests were the object of intense exploitation. The excesses of the woodcutters, pitch (pez) collectors and charcoal makers (initially for sugar manufacturing), the destructive fires, the incursions of peasant cultivators and their livestock, and the perpetual shortage of reliable guards, all contributed to what was early seen as an ecological disaster in the making. Efforts to stem the devastation by the island councils and, later, by such civic groups as the Sociedades Económicas were to no avail.

After four centuries of continued abuse the pinares have been largely reestablished, most successfully on Tenerife, through a vigorous government afforestation program, now under the charge of ICONA. More than 25. 000 ha have been planted. The maximizing of horizontal precipitation («fog drip») and watershed protection, not the production of lumber, has been the guiding rationale. Recently esthetic and recreational values have been given comparable emphasis. The Canaries today support stands of pines of greater luxuriance and extent than have been known at any time since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago. But the «monte verde» in most areas is little more than a memory, long since converted to cropland or secondary scrub.