They are not the first bird species you would expect to see in the Canary Islands but the Flamingo could be about to become a familiar site in Fuerteventura. At the Stella Canarias Zoo in Morro Jable, three pairs of the exotic bird are currently incubating eggs and expect to hear the patter of not so tiny feet in July.

Flamingos don’t normally settle in Spain but their migratory routes can bring them in close contact and in Andalucia in the south of mainland Spain, there are 16,000 pairs living in the wild. The Fuerteventura Zoo is proud of its colourful birds and hoped this could be the start of a major breeding programme to increase their numbers.

The threat of oil exploitation has returned to the Canary Islands, with the upsurge in petrol prices reviving interest in oil fields around the islands. Leading Spanish oil giant, Repsol, are expected to apply to dust off old unused drilling licences, to plunder deposits under the sea.

The Spanish Institute of Oceanography confirmed in 2002, that there is a large deposit of oil near Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Spains Prime Minister Aznar granted 9 new drilling licences to search for oil but at the time Repsol considered that it was not cost effective to start the search. Now times have changed and the President of Repsol, Antoni Brufau has indicated that the company will now push ahead to discover exactly how much oil the Canary Islands can yield.

As well as economic times changing, so have political times. The current Prime Minister Zapatero, on his summer holiday to Lanzarote in 2006, promised that no permission would be given to drill for oil unless there was a consensus from the island people. Sadly the higher that oil prices go, the more likely large scale drilling in the Canary Islands becomes.

Of necessity, these islands have constantly had to develop new ways of working with nature, from water management and delivery to ensuring that fishing stocks are rationed to support the traditional industries of the islands. Lots of exciting work is going on with Biosphere Reserves, Wind Parks, Animal Preservation Projects and much more.

Nature can be very fragile, this is something that the Canary Islands have learned from past experience with volcanic eruptions, something that can happen at any time on any of the islands. Many old traditions and ways of life are under threat, but with encouragement and strong government policies there is still time to protect the past and learn for the future.

This site will bring you the latest trends and updates on what steps are being made to put the Canary Islands at the forefront of green planning. Your comments are welcome and if there is anything you need to know more about, we will try to shine a light on it.