Protected Natural Areas
Nearly half of the island territory - 667 km² (42,7% of island), is under protection from the Red Canaria de Espacios Naturales Protegidos (Canary Islands Network for Naturally Protected Areas). Of the 146 protected sites under control of network in the Canary Islands archipelago, a total of 33 are located in Gran Canaria, the second most protected island in the group. There are seven different categories of protection: six nature reserves: El Brezal, Azuaje, Los Tilos de Moya, Los Marteles, Las Dunas de Maspalomas and Güigüi (total 7,153.1 ha); two integral nature reserves: Inagua and Barranco Oscuro (total 3,955,5 ha); two natural parks: Tamadaba and Pilancones (total 13,333 ha), two rural parks: Nublo and Doramas (total 29,893.4 ha), ten natural monuments: Amagro, Bandama, Montañón Negro, Roque de Aguayro, Tauro, Arinaga, Barranco de Guayadeque, Riscos de Tirajana, Roque Nublo and Barranco del Draguillo (total 5,264.9 ha), seven protected landscapes: La Isleta (in the capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Pino Santo, Tafira, Las Cumbres, Lomo Magullo, Fataga and Montaña de Agüimes (total 12,680.9 ha); four sites of scientific interest: Jinámar, Tufia, Roque de Gando and Juncalillo del Sur (total 276.2 ha).
Read more about this topic: Gran Canaria
Famous quotes containing the words protected, natural and/or areas:
“Guns have metamorphosed into cameras in this earnest comedy, the ecology safari, because nature has ceased to be what it always had been—what people needed protection from. Now nature tamed, endangered, mortal—needs to be protected from people.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she “allures” us to our death.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)