You are in Home > History of the INR of Inagua > Ethnographic history and exploitation
Life-Inagua Menu
History of the INR of Inagua
Ethnographic history and exploitation
Historically, the woodlands situated in the higher areas of the island of Gran Canaria have been exploited by man for various purposes: naval industry, sugar mills, farmland, etc., causing drastic deforestation. The area bounded by the current Integral Nature Reserve of Ojeda, Inagua and Pajonales has managed to preserve itself largely due to its rugged terrain and the various protection figures from whom it has benefitted.
Despite this, certain utilizations such as the production of charcoal or obtaining pitch or "pez", have produced intense deforestation in the greater part of the central region of the island, which has affected areas of the Reserve. The pitch obtaining process was carried out in kilns located in the actual forest, and consisted of burning candlewood, typical of the large specimens of the Canary Island Pine, for the extraction of its resin. It Is due to this that this activity affected the most select parts of the forest. The pitch obtained was mainly used for caulking in boats and for medicinal purposes. Today we can still find numerous vestiges of this activity, giving certain areas of the Reserve their name, such as "Montaña de los Hornos" (Mountain of the Kilns).
Another resource extracted from this woodland was the use of dry pine leaves or “pinocha”, which was employed in banana packaging, as well as in obtaining organic compost.
On the other hand, these peaks of the central area region of the island have been dedicated to goat herding since prehispanic times. Up until recent eras a form of extensive herding was practised in the area, in which the livestock remained free for the greater part of the year, being caught on specific occasions for their exploitation. This use is currently in decline, though a certain number of heads of livestock remain in a feral state.
English
Español
- Hornos de tea en Inagua
The last stage of evolution of the pine forests, which began in the 1940s, coincided with the recovery of woodland of the mid-ground and peaks, due mainly to the decrease in utility, to the recession in agricultural activity and goat herding in the highlands of the islands, to the decadence and disappearance of naval industry and the substitution of wood for butane gas as fuel, and secondly to government repopulation policies, as well as a legal ruling which began to protect many natural spaces.
This area currently supports a very limited use derived from the protection regime to which it is subject, receiving visits from scholars and hikers, who walk along the network of paths and forest trails integrated in the Integral Nature Reserve of Ojeda, Inagua end Pajonales.
