It has been designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2009 and a Starlight Reserve since 2015, thanks to the excellent quality of its skies. Furthermore, the island has the distinction of being recognised as an international Site of Geological Interest (SGI), as it is the oldest island in the Canaries, dating back some 23 million years.
Fuerteventura has 11 terrestrial Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and 9 Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPAs); it also has 2 SACs and 1 SPA in the marine environment within the Natura 2000 network, and boasts 13 Protected Natural Areas, which account for 43.7% of the island’s territory.
This is why Fuerteventura is considered one of the world’s most valuable ecosystems, with a unique biodiversity of both flora and fauna, including many native and even endemic species found nowhere else.
Furthermore, the island possesses a rich cultural, historical, archaeological and ethnographic heritage, mostly associated with expressions of rural life, traditional ways of life and their tangible and intangible manifestations. In fact, it boasts around 80 Sites of Cultural Interest (churches, chapels, lighthouses, windmills, lime kilns, etc.) and more than fifteen museums and interpretation centres dedicated to a variety of themes (cheese, salt, agriculture, water, piracy, archaeology, etc.).
However, Fuerteventura is a fragile environment facing the global climate crisis, caused primarily by high levels of aridity, erosion, and the loss of biodiversity resulting from the destruction of natural habitats and pollution caused by human activity. Furthermore, it is also facing new challenges due to the loss of cultural identity, caused mainly by mass tourism, gentrification and generational change.
Therefore the responsibility of everyone (both the local population and tourists) to respect, care for and protect our wonderful island of Fuerteventura.
