Fuerteventura seeks projects to save its palm groves

The Palmac project, funded by the EU’s Interreg Mac program, analyzes palm genetics to develop survival strategies

The native palm groves of Fuerteventura are vulnerable to external pests and drastic environmental changes, and the island council (Cabildo) continues to lead initiatives for their conservation. The latest effort is its inclusion in the Palmac project, which aims to adapt the Macaronesian palm groves (Phoenix canariensis and Phoenix atlántica) to these changes through genetic techniques and predictive models.

The Palmac project, financed by the European Union’s Interreg Mac program and involving the councils of Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria, the Agricultural Institute of Cape Verde, Gesplan, and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, studies the genetics of Canary and Cape Verdean palms to devise survival strategies under these conditions.

Marlene Figueroa, Biosphere Reserve Councillor of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, highlighted the island’s entry into the project, which already builds on experience from work carried out in La Gomera, the island that hosts the largest number of Phoenix canariensis specimens.

“The native palm populations of the Canary Islands number around 300,000 individuals, but they are vulnerable to uncontrollable, increasingly frequent and prolonged factors such as drought periods,” Figueroa said.
“The Canary palm is more vulnerable than other species because it grows where there is groundwater, dying if the water table drops.”

In a coordination meeting held on Monday, Councillor Enrique Pérez also participated, emphasizing the challenges palms face as a vulnerable species and the various measures being coordinated by the Cabildo and other institutions for their conservation, including the Palmac project.

In this context, the Palmac project will conduct field studies of the palm groves and the groundwater conditions (characteristics and depth of the water table). Consequently, it will address one of the ecosystems most negatively impacted by climate change.

Another action will focus on creating an online portal, open to the general public, that will display the distribution, status, and evolution of palms and palm groves through a geographic information system. Simultaneously, the project includes a genomic and genetic component aimed at uncovering the genetic modifications that endemic palms of the Canary Islands and Cape Verde undergo as they adapt to the climate.

Interreg Mac is the European Union’s specific cooperation program for Madeira, the Azores, and the Canary Islands (Mac), approved by the European Commission on 21 September 2022.