Geographical heritage in natural protected areas of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)

Resumen

Tenerife is the largest (2034 km2), and the highest (3718 m a.s.l.) island of the Canary. It has beenbuilt up as a result of the accumulation of different volcanic materials during the last 12 millionyears. In Tenerife it can be recognized different morphostructures: three shield volcanoes (Anaga,Teno and Adeje), two volcanic ridges (Pedro Gil and Abeque), a important volcanic field in thesouth of the island, a central caldera (Las Cañadas), a complex stratovolcano (Teide-Pico Viejo) andhundreds of cinder or scoria monogentic cones scattered throughout the island's geography.Despite this geological and volcanic richness, geological heritage is currently given less importancethan biogegraphical heritage when identifying, defining and catalogue natural areas to protect(NPA). The objective of this work is to obtain the classification of geomorphological heritage of thetotal NPAs of the island and show the importance that these volcanic forms and their processeshave in the natural landscapes of Tenerife. In this work we utilized the methodology elaborated bySerrano and González (2014) and involves a three-way comparison of the different values of thegeomorphosites: scientific, cultural and use and management values. The values ofgeomorphological heritage are expressed from 1 to 5. Tenerife has forty-three NPAs with a total ofmore than 110,098 hectares, which represents more than 49% of its surface. The variety of NPAsare: one National Park, ten Natural Reserves, one Natural Park, two Rural Park, fourteen NaturalMonuments, nine Protected Landscapes and six Sites of scientific interest. In general, the NPAsshows the geodiversity of Tenerife´s volcanism with average scientific (1.5), cultural (1.8) and use(2.6) values. These data show the importance of geoheritage in the NPAs of Tenerife (shieldvolcanoes, stratovolcanoes, volcanic ridges, scoria cones, lava fields, hornitos, lava tubes, lavadeltas, calderas, ravines, cliffs, beaches, dunes, etc.), but we can´t avoid the human interventionon several characteristics at these areas with cultural values over than scientific (mythos, legends,archaeological sites, traditional construction, crops, livestock, etc.). The geomorphological heritageanalysis expressed the relationship between of the volcanic natural heritage and the humans.(Volturmac-MAC2/4.6c/298).