Retroceso agrario, protección ambiental y ocupación residencial del espacio rural en Canarias a comienzos del siglo XXI
- Ruiz Pulpón, Ángel Raúl (coord.)
- Serrano de la Cruz Santos-Olmo, Manuel Antonio (coord.)
- Plaza Tabasco, Julio (coord.)
Publisher: Óptima
ISBN: 978-84-87087-03-5
Year of publication: 2016
Pages: 682-696
Congress: Coloquio de Geografía Rural (18. 2016. Ciudad Real)
Type: Conference paper
Abstract
Cultivated land represents only 5.7 percent of the land area of the Canary Islands, and the archipelago has the third lowest relative agricultural area of the Spanish regions. At the same time, it has a population density of over 280 inhabitants per km2, one of the highest in the country. However, food coverage on the islands is below 30 percent, in a region of over two million inhabitants that received more than 12 million visitors in 2015. But agricultural abandonment, population growth and improved living standards have triggered an intense process of urbanisation, with urban land now occupying a greater area than agriculture. In this context, and with the aim of preserving the main island ecosystems, since the late 1980s the regional government has promoted the creation of protected natural areas, which now occupy more than 40 percent of the archipelago.