Canary islands agricultural landscapes

Abstract

The small islands have been considered from the past as excellent laboratories for the advancement of knowledge, because of their isolation, precise delineation and easily affordable by researchers. However, in many cases it is difficult apply categories of spatial analysis designed for wider areas to modest dimension of insular scale and, in some cases, showing high fragmentation occupational. That is, for example, what happens to the proposed classification of the agricultural landscapes of the Canary Islands, because of the limitation of the cultivated area, the small size of plots and territorial discontinuity of farms. These factors have hindered the classification of landscapes related to agricultural activity on territorial units of sufficient size, and not only simple points in map of crops.

Possibly for this reason, the popular appreciation has simplified this problem by establishing on raised islands only two landscape units, linked to climatic influence, the North and South. The criteria of differentiation used has been the features characteristic of dampness or dryness of the climate of each side and identifying elements of human occupation of each of these geographic areas, including crops and forms of settlement. The first authors who have proposed a formal classification more in detail, have used more agro climatic criteria than the actual landscape, since these authors have included in their division a typology based on altitudinal floors feature of agriculture in the islands, with its stretch of coastline, medium and summit. But the critical analysis of previous researches and review of the factors for defining the agricultural landscapes of the Canary Islands have also led us to question the exclusive role of culture as defining element of the categories of agricultural landscape of the archipelago, taking into account the limited acreage, the high fragmentation of holdings and the dispersion map of crops in the region. The above factors has led us to consider the role of other elements such as volcanic materials used to support agriculture, which in many cases are even more visible that crops, farming systems existing in the Islands, the cultivation techniques used in various agricultural areas, and even certain cultural configurations as the known fringe of Las Medianías, to formalize the operative proposal of agricultural landscapes presented in this work.