Chinijo archipelago

Chinijo archipelago
	Lanzarote's north with La Graciosa , Montaña Clara and Alegranza
Waters	Atlantic Ocean
archipelago	Canary Islands
Geographical location	29 ° 20 ′ N , 13 ° 30 ′ W Coordinates: 29 ° 20 ′ N , 13 ° 30 ′ W
Number of islands	5
Main island	La Graciosa
Total land area	40.84 km²
Residents	644
	Chinijo archipelago

The Chinijo Archipelago ( Spanish Archipiélago Chinijo ) is a small group of islands north of the Canary Island of Lanzarote in the Atlantic Ocean .

geography

The Chinijo archipelago includes the uninhabited islands of Alegranza , Montaña Clara , Roque del Este , Roque del Oeste and the only inhabited island of La Graciosa , with 771 inhabitants in 2019.

The area covers 40.48 square kilometers of land, is separated from Lanzarote by the approximately one kilometer wide El Río strait and is administered there by the municipality of Teguise .

natural reserve

The archipelago was declared a national nature reserve in May 1986 together with the northern cliffs of Lanzarote, the Risco de Famara and parts of the El Jable drifting sand plain as well as the Monte Corona (all part of the municipality of Haría ), which is called Parque Natural del Archipielago Chinijo wearing. With a total area of 462.36 square kilometers (of which 91.12 square kilometers land area) the nature park extends far beyond the area of the archipelago. Within this nature park, the islands of Montaña Clara, Roque del Este and Roque del Oeste have been specially protected as Reserva Natural Integral de los Islotes since 1994 . Their protection is higher than that of the rest of the nature park, so entering these three islands is strictly forbidden.

In 1986, 17.22 square kilometers of the entire nature park were declared the Zona Especial de Protección para las Aves (ZEPA) , a special protection area for bird life under Directive 79/409 / EEC on the conservation of wild birds . Important representatives of the 150 bird species here are ospreys , Eleanor and desert falcons , yellow-billed shearwaters , petrels and Egyptian vultures .

Some endemics exist in the flora and fauna of this nature park , with 90 percent of the Lanzarote endemics living in the Chinijo archipelago.

The waters of the Chinijo Archipelago were designated as Reserva Marina de Isla Graciosa e Islotes del Norte de Lanzarote in 1995 as a special protected area, granted by the Canarian Fisheries Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Sea turtles, nine species of whales and dolphins and limpets are all under protection.

At European level, the archipelago is one of the protected areas of the Natura 2000 network and internationally since 1993 it has been part of the Lanzarote Biosphere Reserve of UNESCO .

Web links

Commons : Chinijo Archipielago - collection of images, videos and audio files

Reserva Natural Integral de Los Islotes (L-1). In: Red Canaria de Espacios Naturales Protegidos. Gobierno de Canarias, September 16, 2009, accessed February 2, 2010 (Spanish).
Island magazine Lanzarote 37 ° - Archipiélago Chinilo, paradise of the Canaries

Individual evidence

↑ La Graciosa no es la octava isla del archipiélago canario. In: lancelotdigital.com. April 29, 2019, accessed August 26, 2020 (Spanish).

[1] La Graciosa no es la octava isla del archipiélago canario. In: lancelotdigital.com. April 29, 2019, accessed August 26, 2020 (Spanish).