The Tenerife Cabildo has initiated a major project to restore the areas of Teide National Park affected by the devastating 2023 forest fire, which burned approximately 1,235 hectares of sensitive ecosystems, primarily Canarian pine forests and summit scrublands. The restoration work, with a budget of around half a million euros, will be carried out by Gesplan over the next nine months.
Rosa Dávila, president of the Cabildo, emphasised the urgency of restoring the ecological balance to the park: “Our goal is to quickly restore Teide’s natural equilibrium and halt the degradation of the land affected by the fire. We have allocated 11 million euros for a comprehensive restoration plan over the next three years to regenerate the forest masses of Teide National Park and the surrounding Corona Forest.”
Dávila points out that the restoration of pine forests and the repopulation of native species will not only help to recover what has been damaged, but also to strengthen the entire environment, since the idea is to prevent or, at any rate, slow the spread of any fire.
The councillor for the Natural Environment, Sustainability and Security and Emergencies, Security, Blanca Pérez, explains that this project "is not only focused on restoring what has been lost, but on our mountains being able to better resist future threats."
Pérez said that the recent approval of the project for the restoration of the summit scrubland, which will also be carried out by Gesplan, for an amount exceeding one million euros, and the recovery of the cedar in the Teide National Park, with an investment of 1.1 million euros.
The work includes removing burned Canarian pine trees, clearing damaged scrubland, and constructing erosion control barriers using material from the fire to stabilise the soil on slopes.
She added that this long-term effort began last year and will continue over the coming years to safeguard Teide National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.