Alegranza

Alegranza is the northernmost of the Canary Islands and is part of the Chinijo Archipelago off Lanzarote. Managed Politically, it is there from the municipality of Teguise.

Geography

The uninhabited island Alegranza is 10.3 square kilometers and is located about 10 kilometers north of the smallest inhabited island of La Graciosa off the northern tip of Lanzarote.

The highest point of the island, the Montaña de Alegranza, situated in the west to 289 meters above sea level. This is a tuff cone with a caldera is 240 meters deep and has a diameter of about 1.1 kilometers. Alegranza has two other volcanoes: Montaña Lobos with 226 meters height and La Rapadura with 115 meters height.

Character

In the past some farmers lived partly on Alegranza. Today you can still find silted slopes, ruins of houses and cisterns. The island is now, as the entire Chinijo Archipelago, as part of the Parque Natural del Archipielago Chinijo under protection. Island visitors require a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency of the Island Council ( Cabildo del Medio Ambiente ), only members of the family owners have unrestricted access.

Alegranza is 80 percent privately owned by a lanzarote African family. To public ownership include the first 100 meters above the high water line Alegranzas, the lighthouse with surrounding terrain and the Camino Real called main path. 2008, the 20 meter wide coastal protective strip on the island, which belongs to the public, broadened from the coast protection authority Costas on 100 meters, as it already since 1988 providing for the Coast Protection Act so. Thus, the private divested area decreased significantly. For some time, run sales negotiations between the owners and the Spanish Ministry of Environment. As a buyer, not a private individual comes into question, because of the Spanish Council of Ministers has declared in September 2007, the profit of the islands Alegranza and Montaña Clara, which also is up for sale. The Spanish State is therefore as a buyer talking to queue the islands in its reserves.

The flora consists mainly of Alegranzas spurge. The fauna consist primarily of breeding seabirds here. From July to November of each year, nests on the island with around 10,000 pairs, the world's second largest population of Cory's shearwaters. Since their chicks are often used in typical Spanish dishes such as paella and Potaje, they must be protected from looters nest. Since 1986, the looting is banned, yet the WWF has ever settled a team to deter poachers on the island since 1998 in the summer months. These two changes weekly group consists of a coordinator and about five volunteer volunteers. Since then, poaching, including seafood such as limpets, should have decreased significantly. Furthermore, there is the practice of environmental protection of the respective group from collecting waste products of civilization especially on the north coast. Since 2006, the financing of the project by the program Plan de Acción del Voluntariado Parques Nacionales en is secured, even if the status of a national park does not exist. The program is under the Department of the Environment belonging authority OAPN - Organismo de Parques Nacionales Autonomo.

Alegranza also heard since 20 December 2002 Bien of Interest Cultural.

Lighthouse

At Punta Delgada, on a narrow spit of land in the far east, the previous February 7, 1905 in operation, 15 meters high lighthouse (Faro) is at 18 meters above sea level, which is still in operation today. On gray tower with the coordinates 29 ° 24.1 'N; 13 ° 29.2 'W is followed by a white building. The lighthouse is solar powered via twelve 24 -volt solar panels. A battery with a capacity of 1,160 Ampere Hours stores the energy for the 150 -watt halogen lamp. A small paved jetty protrudes directly at the lighthouse a few meters in a southerly direction into the sea.