- To inform and raise awareness among the local population and tourists about the need to conserve and care for the natural values of its spaces, especially its birdlife
- Bird colonization is a bioindicator that reflects the site's good ecological status
This is one of the environmental awareness proposals of the park, which aims to inform and make the local population and tourists aware of the need to conserve natural values. These informative materials reflect, among other aspects, the results of the monitoring carried out by Seo Bird Life of both regular nesting birds and migratory birds that choose the Palmetum as a temporary refuge.
The mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, states that "the Palmetum is an example of recovery of a degraded space has become a tourist attraction of the city over time and thanks to the technicians who devised it and those responsible for its conservation. Thanks to the work by its managers and companies such as Fundación Cepsa, we are incorporating new values that make visiting it more attractive." "In 2022, the Palmetum increased the number of visitors from 2019, the year before the pandemic, by 20 percent, exceeding 72,000 people," he maintained.
For the head of Fundación Cepsa in the Canary Islands, Belén Machado, "among the fauna found in the Park, the presence of birds that have been naturally and spontaneously colonizing the mountain for years is of note. Seo Bird Life and El Palmetum have been collaborating closely in their care, protection, and development for some time, and we have recently joined Fundación Cepsa in our commitment to the conservation of biodiversity in those places where we are."
For his part, Alfonso Cabello, councilman responsible for the Palmetum, emphasizes that "this Park is another piece within the Strategic Tourism Plan of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The strategy in the space itself and in the surroundings is, first, to continue providing quality to its offer, related to sustainability and the environment, which includes the sighting and conservation of ornithological species, as the awareness-raising project carried out with the support of Fundación Cepsa made evident, and, first, to turn it into a meeting point for the citizens of the city, the island, and its visitors."
Specifically, two panels dedicated exclusively to the birds that can be found in the garden (both nesting and migratory) have been updated and a new one dedicated to seabirds has been added, which also includes information about the whales that can be observed from the garden's viewpoints overlooking the sea. All of them under the title 'Birds of the Palmetum, discover and protect them', with informative content about the species, the most important observation points in the park, as well as illustrations of these birds as examples.
Together with these panels, an updated leaflet on the birds of the Palmetum has been published, which is handed out to visitors to the garden and includes, in addition to information on the birds present in the park, a section called 'How you can help in their conservation,' in which best practices to protect this precious fauna are promoted.
Also as a change, a panel dedicated to bats and another on insectivorous birds has been installed. Next to these panels, nesting boxes will be installed to contribute to conserving this fauna by offering help to species that have seen a decrease in the number of trees and spaces suitable for nesting.
The last of the panels is dedicated to the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, where the transformation of this insect from an egg hatching to becoming an adult butterfly is visually described.
All these panels have bilingual content and are located in iconic points of the garden such as the Madagascar Lake, the Caribbean Square, and the Africa Viewpoint. In addition, they have QR codes that allow visitors who wish to learn more to expand their knowledge.
All this informative material is also used in guided tours for schoolchildren and other groups to raise public awareness of the importance of sustainability, conservation, and caring for nature, demonstrating with the living example of the Palmetum how a desolate territory has been able to become, through sustainable practices, an oasis of biodiversity.
