PROPOSAL
FOR THE USE OF FOG COLLECTORS TO STRIP WATER FROM FOG/CLOUDS
TO BE USED FOR THE REFORESTATION OF THE UPPER REGIONS OF MOUNT
HARIA.
JUSTIFICATION AND
CONTEXT
BIOSPHERE
RESERVE
This proposal is perhaps best considered in the context of familiar
problems associated with Lanzarote's Biosphere status; demands
of both the local population and the tourist industry continue
to threaten our unique landscape and wildlife. Disputes over developments
such as the Montaña Blanca radar station divide local opinion
while a project such as this, which seeks not only to halt but
also to reverse environmental degradation, might provide a timely
unifying focus.
AIMS
OF PROJECT
By providing high-quality irrigation water from fog interceptors,
young trees, o f
species native to the region, will be assisted through crucial
early stages of growth. As they mature these trees will intercept
fog water themselves, adding moisture to the ground which will
assist both continued growth and the establishment of new generations
of trees and shrubs.
Such restoration of the near-extinct forest of Mt. Haria would
not only be of great scientific/environmental importance but may
also be expected to greatly reduce soil erosion and enhance Lanzarote’s
attractiveness to tourists.
OBJECTIVES OF PROJECT
-Restoration of forest cover (and associated wildlife) to Mt.
Haria.
-Prevention of soil erosion.
-Promotion of eco-tourism.
-Development of Lanzarote’s tradition of efficient use of
water resources.
A
MODERN RESPONSE THE WATER CRISIS
It
is clear that the 'water crisis' is rapidly becoming as one of
the great problems facing the world. Such shortages of fresh water
require sustainable responses which may involve exploitation of
hitherto neglected sources.
Here,
as in much of the world, lack of water is the limiting factor
for plant growth. Past attempts to reintroduce native flora to
Mt. Haria have depended on irrigation in order for the plants
become established. This has proved to be a key weakness as funding
and co-ordination for this has been lacking. In any case evaporation
of irrigation water in high temperatures may ultimately cause
a build up of salt, which remains in the ground reducing soil
fertility. In contrast to many other sources (especially desalinated
water) water produced from fog interception contains very little
impurity. In any case desalinated water is expensive and direct
human needs have priority for its use – it is certainly
not economically viable to use desalinated water for large-scale
irrigation.
The
Canaries have a tradition going back over thousands of years of
making efficient use of their limited water resources. Most relevant
to this case is the legendary 'El Garoe', the 'arbol santo' of
El Hierro. A huge tree (probably a laurel), which intercepted
rolling fog, the water dripping from its leaves and branches into
cisterns providing drinking water for the inhabitants. The pine
forests of Tenerife contribute more to stream water by fog capture
than is provided by rainfall.
Recently,
techniques for extracting water from this source have been refined
by scientists and in the last decade several fog-collecting schemes
have been initiated. The most well known of these is in the town
of Chungungo in Chile providing thousands of liters of water every
day from fogs intercepted at a nearby hilltop. Dr. Robert Schemenauer,
the Canadian cloud physicist who has pioneered this work, has
visited Lanzarote and believes the island to have definite potential
for such a scheme. He points out that the Canaries have our own
expert on fog collection in the person of Dra María Victoria
Marzol Jaén of the University of La Laguna, Tenerife whose
advice and guidance will be sought if the project is approved.
Dr.
Schemenauer is executive director of FogQuest, an innovative,
international, non-governmental, non-profit organization, which
implements and promotes environmentally appropriate use of fog
collecting techniques. “FogQuest: sustainable water solutions”
was incorporated in the Province of Ontario as a not-for-profit
corporation according to Letters Patent # 1434908 on 15 September
2001. FogQuest has status as a registered charity with the Government
of Canada. The expertise of FogQuest will be used to assess and
guide this project.
DETAILED OBJECTIVES
REFORESTATION
It is important to be clear that, despite the small amount of
rainfall Lanzarote experiences, parts of this island once enjoyed
a cover of forest. Evidence that these trees were removed fairly
recently is provided by the deep layers of soil still present
on the very highest parts of the Montaña de Haria. Such
depth of topsoil can only have resulted from millennia of forest
cover. Before deforestation, fogwater was intercepted by the leaves
and branches of mature trees and would drip onto the ground. Seedlings
were thus nurtured from a water source that is no longer being
intercepted.
As noted, previous attempts to restore tree cover to Montaña
de Haria have met with limited success as the majority of treelings
succumbed to the summer heat and aridity. Observation shows that
most of the surviving trees are located in parts of the mountain
where ground-level fog is common. Contact with this fog has clearly
provided these trees with a source of water, which has been a
crucial factor in their survival. In other areas the same fog
exists a meter or two above the ground. Trees in such sites may
need help surviving until they are tall enough to reach this moisture
themselves. For a relatively small investment plastic nets can
be used to intercept useful amounts of water from the frequent
fogs that roll over the mountain. This water can provide a 'kick-start'
to the re-establishment of the ‘laurisilva’ cloud
forest that once existed.
PREVENTION OF SOIL EROSION
The valuable topsoil layer that remains is rapidly eroding. This
is due not only to the loss of tree cover but also to the degradation
of the stone-walled terraces; kicked over by ramblers and rabbit
hunters. Various projects designed to halt soil erosion seem to
have been initiated without any inclusion of tree planting. As
it is the past removal of trees, which is largely responsible
for this erosion, any attempt at control which does not include
reforestation may prove to be, at best, short term.
PROMOTION
OF ECO-TOURISM
The Biosphere Reserve status with which Lanzarote is honored with
has yet to be fully exploited in terms of its tourist potential.
Modern awareness of environmental problems is producing a new
type of tourist who is as much interested in Lanzarote's unique
biology, geology and culture as in our sunshine and beaches. The
increasing popularity of walking tours and visitors to the wind
generators in Los Valles illustrate this, however wind farms already
exist all over Europe and cannot be expected to create the same
level of interest as a fog stripping project. Access to interested
tourists therefore seems a desirable feature right from the start.
A tree will be planted by each SFC, irrigated with collected water
(after measurement), thus providing a demonstration of the projects
potential. As the project develops decisions can be made about
the extension of footpaths or roads.
Another possible future addition is the construction of a small
pond as an adjunct to a storage tank. It is easy to demonstrate
how the most modestly sized body of water on Lanzarote rapidly
becomes a magnet for wildlife – frogs birds and butterflies
are all the more fascinating and striking for being encountered
in the dry landscape of this island.
DEVELOPMENT OF EFFICIENT WATER USE
STRATEGIES
Scientific knowledge gained from this project may be of great
significance elsewhere (e.g. the Cape Verde islands). As well
as the recently developed technique of fog-collecting nets this
project will make use of traditional local stone mulching practices
i.e. a layer of ‘picon’ (lapilli) will be used to
suppress evaporation around newly planted treelings.
LOCATION OF SITES
The shaded area on the enclosed
map includes all sites considered as appropriate for assessment
using Standard Fog Collectors (SFC’s). This area contains
both the military radar station and Telefonica’s microwave
transmission tower. Obviously both organizations should be consulted
about this project but serious objections are not anticipated;
during informal consultations a Telefonica engineer has stated
that neither the fog collectors themselves nor the anticipated
tree growth should cause any interference with these two operations
as both plastic and wood are relatively transparent to the electromagnetic
frequencies involved. It is to be hoped that these organizations
will actively support this scheme as it may serve to beautify
the rather denuded areas they use.
Consultation with individuals and organizations familiar with
the area is essential – not only to gain support for the
project but also to gather information to assist with selection
of sites for the SFC’s.
DESCRIPTION OF METHODS:
OVERVIEW
The project has three basic phases:
- assessment
- sites for standard fog collectors (description below) will
be selected and the SFC’s installed, measurements will
be collected from these over a period of one year, data will
be evaluated by FogQuest and any suitable sites for large fog
collectors identified;
- large
fog collectors will be installed in any sites so identified,
whenever possible the SFC’s can be moved to enable investigation
of other areas, treelings will be planted and appropriate systems
to distribute collected water to them will be installed;
- opportunities
to expand the scheme to other parts of Mt. Haria will be investigated.
DETAILED SCHEDULE
FOR PHASE 1
-
Once confirmation of funding is obtained:
a schedule for the project will be finalized
- an
initial meeting will be held with people who may be affected
by the project to inform them of the plans and ask for their
input and participation
- the
standard fog collectors will be constructed;
- the
executive director of FogQuest, from Canada will then travel
to Lanzarote to meet with Mr. Riebold and potential partners
in the project to choose the exact locations of the SFC's and
to do an initial assessment of the needs for a subsequent operational
project;
- measurements
will be carried out for a minimum of 12 months – observation
suggests that a bimodal distribution exists, with fog common
during the hottest periods of summer as well as in wintertime.
Data will be collected on a routine basis from the field sites
and sent to Chile for review and analysis; the final data set
will be examined at the FogQuest office in Toronto;
- the
data from the SFC's will be used to assess the amount of water
that is available from fog and rainfall collection, the variability
of the water production and the requirement for reservoirs;
- a
brief preliminary report will be produced when 75% of the field
data are available; this will be used to guide decisions as
to whether an operational project is suitable in one or more
areas;
- a
final report will be produced when all the field data are available,
verified and processed.
PHASES
2 AND 3
These
will only proceed if and when FogQuest’s analysis of the
data gathered during Phase 1 indicates a high probability of success.
The ultimate goal of this project is to recreate as closely as
possible the forest ecosystem that once characterized Mt. Haria.
This ambitious aim requires commitment from sponsoring agencies
to allow treeling planting and construction of large fog collectors,
pipelines, reservoirs and wildlife ponds.
TECHNICAL
DETAILS
- Construction
of Standard Fog Collectors
A standard fog collector consists of a 1m x 1m frame raised
2m above ground level which supports a double layer of (locally
available) polypropylene plastic mesh netting. As fog touches
the netting drops of liquid water form, which run down the nets
into gutters that direct it into suitable containers. The budget
(below) assumes that these can be constructed locally –
if this proves impractical FogQuest can provide these at additional
cost.
Sites which are identified as suitable by these standardised
collectors can be subsequently fitted with larger more permanent
collectors, the precise shape and size of which will depend
on the topology of the site – in El Tofo, Chile collectors
with a span between posts of 12m have proved practical.
-
Identification of suitable sites
This is an aspect of the project where involvement of local
people is essential. Anyone who lives or farms in this area
will obviously be an invaluable source of information.
Several factors must be taken into consideration:
-Frequent presence of low-level fog.
-A constant wind. It is important that the fog is not stationary.
-Absence of any rare or otherwise important flora which might
be damaged.
-Conformity to decisions about the visibility of the collectors.
-Sufficient accessibility and stability to permit construction
work.
-Visible soil erosion. A tree planted in or near a gully will
not only help to prevent further erosion but will also benefit
from the excess ground water that created the gully in the first
place.
-
Selection
of tree species.
In general it is felt that local species are always preferable
to exotics. A species of tree that has existed here for millennia
will inevitably support a far greater range of local fauna
than a recent import. As well as providing food and habitat
for familiar animal life the importance of associated soil
fungi and bacteria is becoming increasingly recognized by
scientists. A single type of tree may uniquely support dozens
of species of microorganism in its rhizosphere (the region
around its roots). In terms of human needs the loss of these
may be even more important than the extinction of the species
of tree itself. As antibiotic resistance becomes common new
medicines are urgently required. Most antibiotics are based
on fungal extracts, extinction of tree species means that
fungal species are being lost before their potential use can
be investigated. Exactly which species are used will inevitably
depend on availability; seed sources from Lanzarote rather
than other islands are preferred. Although the Canarian Pine
(Pinus Canariensis) has clearly proved suitable for use in
this area, a monoculture of this species would not represent
a re-creation of this island's unique but near extinct forest.
Since this species is already well represented on Mt. Haria
further plantings seem of low priority while a variety of
other local species remain underrepresented.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Riebold (BA, MSc, MEd) has lived in Haria (Calle la Cañada
2) for over a decade working as senior science teacher at a local
secondary school. His Masters degree in Environmental Forestry/Agroforestry
(University of North Wales) involved a study of Lanzarote's traditional
and potential future use of unusual sources of water for cultivation
and forestry. The once-derelict land behind his house has been
the site of much experimentation in tree planting, especially
of local species and has developed into a unique wildlife garden
which was listed in June 2000 by the Island Council (Cabildo de
Lanzarote Unidad de Patrimonio Historico-Artistico) as a site
of special cultural interest.
REFERENCES
www.fogquest.org This website (available in both English and Spanish)
provides the most up to date guide to modern fog capturing projects
and techniques.
Medio Ambiente Canarias Dicembre 2001: Los captadores de brumas.
Medio Ambiente no.22
Schemenauer,
R & Cereceda, P. 1994: Fog collection’s role in water
planning for developing countries. Natural Resources Forum, 18,
pp 91-100
Schemenauer,
R. & Cereceda, P. 1994: A Proposed Standard Fog Collector
for Use in High-Elevation regions. J. Applied Meteorology, 33,
pp1313-1322.
Schemenauer,
R. & Cereceda, P. 1994: The role of wind in rainwater catchment
and fog collection. Water international, 19, 70-76
Burnie,
D. 1994: Ecotourists to Paradise. New scientist, 1921, p23
Schemenauer,
R & Cereceda P. 1992: The Quality of Fog Water Collected for
Domestic and Agricultural Use in Chile. Journal of applied meteorology,
31
 Newsletter article from Haria council. Click to enlarge.
This article appeared in the September 2005 Lanzarote Gazette:
 
After his visit to Haria Fred Pearce wrote this excellent article for New Scientist:
  
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