The IES Cabrera Pinto hosts a symposium that brings together experts and professionals in the fields of conservation, nature, heritage and culture.

This Wednesday, 3 December, the Cabrera Pinto Secondary School in La Laguna hosted the inauguration and the first presentations of the symposium entitled ‘City of La Laguna, World Heritage 25 years later’. This space for reflection aims to delve into the impact that this international declaration has had, on the occasion of this important anniversary, as well as to address the short and medium-term challenges facing the city and its natural spaces.

The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, was in charge of welcoming the audience present during the opening session, highlighting “the quality and professional background of the people who make up this rich programme, with which a quarter of a century later we can reflect on what happened in this period, in the city and its surroundings”.

“One of the main purposes we pursue with this symposium is to put on the table the opportunities that are opening up in the near future of La Laguna, which wants to continue to be a place of coexistence, study, promotion and defence of international values that today we must claim with greater force,” said the mayor.

Finally, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez remarked that “La Laguna is a good example of culture as a tool for social and economic development, reaffirming its commitment to the process of reflection on the work carried out during this period and with the new objectives that must be set to advance in the conservation of its heritage and sustainable urban development”.

Tuesday’s programme included speeches by the president of the Scientific Council of the MaB Committee, Marisa Tejedor; the former director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences of UNESCO, Miguel Clüsener-Godt; the promoter and coordinator of the World Heritage proposal in islands, Cipriano Marín; and the head of Parks and Gardens of La Laguna, Francesco Salomone.

Tomorrow, Wednesday 4 December, the activity will resume at 10:00 a.m., with the intervention of Juan Manuel Palerm Salazar, Professor of Architectural Projects at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with ‘The RE (invention/evolution) of the landscape of architecture. Heritage as a resource and strategic reference’. José Luis Rivero Ceballos, Professor of Applied Economics at the University of La Laguna, will close the lectures with a talk on ‘Culture, nature and local development’.

This symposium is part of the programme of activities of the Semana Grande, with which La Laguna commemorates the 25th anniversary of its designation as a World Heritage City by Unesco.