The municipality of El Sauzal in Tenerife is taking part this week of the program “Canarias: una ventana volcánica en el Atlántico” (Canary Islands: A volcanic window in the Atlantic Ocean) organized in every municipality of the Canary Islands by the ITER foundation, a public entity within the Council of Tenerife.

This is an awareness campaign within an information diffusion program on the volcanic phenomenon and the management of volcanic risks. The program counts with the support and sponsorship of the Instituto Español de Oceanografía – IEO (Spanish Oceanographic Institute) within the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Academia Canaria de Seguridad (Canary Security Academy) within the Canary Islands Government, the Federación Canaria de Municipios – FECAM (Canary Municipalities Federation) and the Telesforo Bravo-Juan Coello Foundation.

This program was created because of the need to inform and aware the population of the Canary Islands about the volcanic phenomenon and the management of the volcanic risk in the Canary territory. The program is one of the initiatives within the special plan for civil security and emergencies management due to volcanic risk in the Canary autonomous community (PEVOLCA).

This program was acknowledged during the 4th edition of the Spanish Volcanology Network congress by the secretary of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI).

The awareness and diffusion activities are taking place from the 14th to the 16th of September at the El Sauzal Cultural Centre from 7:00 p.m. The first day consisted on the showing of the films “Comprendiendo los Peligros Volcánicos” (understanding volcanic danger) and “Reduciendo el riesgo volcánico” (reducing volcanic risks). These movies were edited by the IAVCEI and the UNESCO.

The second day, the organizers will give a conference about the volcanic phenomenon and the management of volcanic risk in the Canary Islands showing pictures of the last eruption occurred in the archipelago.

This program will be carried out during this year in all the Canary archipelago including the Isla de la Graciosa, as a way to contribute to the reduction of volcanic risk in the islands creating awareness in the society to make it be more prepared and aware about the volcanic phenomenon and the volcanic risk.

This program is part of the activities developed to create awareness and diffuse information about the volcanic phenomenon and its risks, as well as the 6th edition of the Cities on Volcanoes International Conference that took place in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, from the 31st of May to 4th the of June 2010.