Fuerteventura is a prized Biosphere Reserve, a sensitive ecosystem that must be preserved. You too can do your part to save this precious environment. Canary Admin Services with Sabrina L. Williams collaborates with AVANFUER Association in their endeavours to reintroduce and preserve Loggerhead turtles to the Canaries as well as Workshops for adults and children alike, beach cleaning campaigns and similar activities.
AVANFUER Mission
What Can You Do?
Many individuals and organizations work continuously behind the scenes to maintain the island’s status as a biosphere reserve and to preserve its outstanding qualities, animal and plant life that make it such a unique place. One of these organizations is AVANFUER, Asociación de Voluntariados de Ayuda a la Naturaleza or "Volunteers Association to Aid the Environment" is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to the preservation of Fuerteventura's environment. Since its beginnings in the year 2005, this association has been working tirelessly to extend its reach from Fuerteventura to the rest of the Canary Islands and has succeeded.
FUERTEVENTURA Biosphere Reserve
An area of excellence devoted to sustainable development
Fuerteventura is the easternmost island of the Canaries with a total surface area of 1,658 km2. In the year 2009, Fuerteventura was declared a Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in an attempt to improve relations between man and the environment. With rich ecosystems and a variety of marine species such as sperm whales, dolphins as well as loggerhead turtles, the island is devoted to their preservation and UNESCO recognizes the island’s efforts in aid of the development of sustainable tourism practices.
Biosphere Reserves are declared as areas of excellence and a live demonstration of conservation methods and sustainable development in line with the Man and Biosphere (MAB) program. Currently there are 553 Biosphere Reserves that form part of a worldwide network of biosphere reserves in some 107 countries whose objective is to study man’s interaction with his environment in all types of climatic and geographical situations as well as interchanging notes so as to:
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One:
Reduce the loss of biodiversity
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Two:
Improve quality of life
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Three:
Promote social, economic and cultural conditions to obtain environmental sustainability
I can only say that it has been such an awesome experience so far and has allowed me to not only to learn a great deal about my surroundings and the species that inhabit the island but to form part of such a worthy cause and to appreciate the amount of work it has taken a dedicated group of people to get a number of projects off the ground and make it the success it is today. So the point of this page and all related posts on this site’s blog, “Canary Bloggers” is to create awareness to guarantee the association can continue to promote and defend environmental causes for a long time to come. I would encourage everyone who has come across this page to collaborate too however you can, every little bit helps.
Sabrina helping out with Loggerhead turtles, Morro Jable, Fuerteventura, July 2012
Participating in the Dolphin and Whale Spotting Program, Corralejo, Fuerteventura, September 2015
