Montaña Clara

Montaña Clara is a small, uninhabited rocky island of politically Spanish owned Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It belongs to the north Chinijo Archipelago off Lanzarote, where it is administered by the municipality of Teguise.

Geography

From the Las Conchas beach on the northern front of Lanzarote island La Graciosa from the view to 1.65 km west of here provides convenient, uninhabited rocky island Montaña Clara. It rises 256 meters above the sea level and has an area of 1.48 square kilometers. Montaña Clara consists of the crater of a tuff cone which is immersed in the sea to the north.

Conservation

Montaña Clara heard the entire Chinijo archipelago, since May 1986 the nature reserve named Parque Natural del Archipelago Chinijo. Within this natural park is the island, especially protected with the neighboring islands of Roque del Oeste and Roque del Este, since 1994 Reserva Natural Integral de los islets.

The protection of this zone is higher up than the rest of the parks, so that entering Montaña Clara is strictly prohibited. With the exception of owners, because Montaña Clara is largely privately owned and has been offered since 2007 through a real estate company for nine million euros for sale. 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 of Montaña Clara and Alegranza, which also is up for sale. There have been negotiations with the Spanish State to queue the island in its reserves. 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.

Montaña Clara is among other things a refuge and breeding area for seabirds and habitat of the Canary shrew ( Crocidura canariensis ), which was described in 1987 as a separate species. The flora of the island has a number of endemic species.