Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council has once again placed its trust in FCC Medio Ambiente (the Spanish brand for FCC Environment) and has awarded the firm the lots 1 and 2 of the ground and urban woodland trees maintenance service for a period of four years, with a joint order book value of €41.6 million, and a possible extension of two years.

The lots awarded cover more than 253 hectares of greenspaces, with 17,824 palm trees and 23,234 trees in the streets and parks of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

FCC, which has provided garden maintenance services in Las Palmas since 2004, will serve the city’s 377,000 inhabitants with a workforce of 308 employees. For this job, it will have 77 vehicles, 39 of which will be electric, including gardening machinery, and two hybrids. Special vehicles for phytosanitary treatments at heights are also available.

As technological novelties, there will be a drone with a high resolution multidirectional camera for monitoring vegetation and phytosanitary purposes, and a tomograph for internal inspections of palm trees and trees, which will allow early curative treatments for sick specimens before symptoms are visible. ARBOMAP, a GIS, geo-referenced information system enabling inventory management of green areas and operational programmes and service incidents, will also be implemented. To optimize and save water for irrigation, there will be a weather station, high efficiency irrigation emitters and irrigation remote management.

FCC has designed a programme for the integrated management of pests and natural enemies, in which is very relevant the agreement with the Canarian Institute of Agrarian Research (ICIA) for the eradication of Diocalandra frumentii, weevils or beetles that drill tunnels in various parts of the palms.

Among other new developmens to be highlighted, an inventory of unique species will be created, the parks will receive Q-Plus certification, and several of them will be published on the "Vivir los Parques” (“Live the Parks”) platform, of the Spanish Association of Public Parks and Gardens (AEPJP).

On the other hand, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council has awarded the maintenance, conservation and playgrounds renovation contract to ajoint venture led by FCC Medio Ambiente until 2022, with a value of more than €3.4 million, and with two possible extensions of one year each. FCC will provide service to 152 playgrounds, with some 20 new facilities throughout the contract.

To carry out the service, FCC will have a workforce of 18 employees. For new hires, and as part of the social commitment of FCC with the communities it serves, the company will employ workers who are at risk of social exclusion, promoting the improvement of work placement and the social integration of groups in situation of vulnerability and with difficulties in accessing employment.

The service will have a fleet of 11 electric and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicles, all of them with low CO2 emissions.