BARRANCOS: CORRIDORS OF LIFE. NEW PROJECT TO THE ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES Carabus

BARRANCOS: CORRIDORS OF LIFE is an innovative outreach and research project that triggers the association Carabus. Its purpose is focused on promoting awareness of cultural and natural biodiversity of the largest network of gullies at the heritage of the island geography. The island of Tenerife has as its defining feature rugged topography. The sharp slopes, combined with a scanty rainfall but torrential character, are the cause of erosive activity over time that has sailed the outline of a series of deep ravines and precipitous walls embedded. The gully is particularly notable in those sectors of the island where the recent volcanic activity has been low and in the Teno, Anaga and Adeje. There is an extensive network of canyons that run from the summit to the coast and its long-range weather pass through different bands, giving rise to an amalgam of microclimates, becoming areas of high ecological diversity. The biodiversity treasure their slopes or channels varies depending on their location and orientation, contributing to the development of multiple habitats that support a wide variety of flora and fauna, making legitimate ravines in shelters for a number of rare endemic species. The man and the canyons have maintained a close relationship throughout history. Ever since time immemorial, Aboriginal people occupied the middle and lower reaches of many ravines, especially those broader and more spacious, as were sites of particular concentration of resources to survive …, maintaining this ancestral link to the late twentieth century, when virtually disappear pastoral livelihoods. While in the past many ravines carrying water almost permanently, the lowering of the aquifer of the island, channeling and excessive exploitation, which currently are very few places you can locate permanent runoff (gullies Afure, The Rio, Hell and Pigs). The occupation of their causes, and its Deltic and its border areas by housing developments, roads and the proliferation of crops, together with waste water discharges, waste … is imposing a drastic change in the ecological conditions of these reserves of the island territory. Gullies act as biodiversity corridors that connect various environments, and have declared or are many of them within the Network of Protected Natural Areas and have become veritable sanctuaries sheltering landscapes and almost lost a large number of unique beings as part of a legacy inherited wealth of exceptional value.