The red palm weevil plague affecting the Canary Island date palm 'could have been avoided'.

This was stated in a presentation by the biologist and numerary academic of the Malaga Academy of Sciences, Ernesto Fernández, who referred to this situation as a problem stemming from “an economic question”.

Botanical experts have assured that the red palm weevil plague that affects the Canary Island palm “could have been avoided” if they had “treated the plants and avoided the implantation of palm trees imported from Egypt and Tunisia in order to reduce costs, they have brought the insect”.

This was stated in the framework of the meeting ‘The urban green. Advantages and disadvantages’ organized by the International University of Andalusia, UNION, and in which professionals from the sector from different areas participate.

The biologist and numerary academic of the Malagueña Academy of Sciences Ernesto Fernández, presenter of the meeting, he referred to this situation as a problem that part of “an economic question”. according to Fernandez, “Many palms were brought from Egypt and Tunisia that were much cheaper and these were contaminated by a coconut insect and there are no predators to destroy it here”.

The professor of botany at the University of Seville and director of the meeting, Benito Valdés, described that implantation of Egyptian and Tunisian palms as “A big mistake”, and noted that “current regulations on this matter prohibit it”, so that “many times these issues are skipped and the contaminated plants come”.

On the other hand, also the speaker of the meeting and professor of ecology at the University of Seville and full academic of the Iberoamerican Academy of La Rábida, Enrique Figueroa, has qualified as “scoundrel” and “weakness” this issue, explaining that “these palm trees have been bought without papers, and the city councils themselves have spent public money on treating public palm trees without imposing that private entities treat them”.

In this sense, Fernández has pointed out that “treating infected palm trees could be avoided, but it is really useless if only public ones are treated, and private ones are not treated because they are a source of infection”. In addition, Figueroa added that “as long as there is no regulation regulating the obligation to treat private plants or eliminate them, these things will happen”.

The red palm weevil is an insect that affects the Canary Island palm and at the moment “does not pose a risk to the coconut tree who is holding up well”, according to Valdés.