Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez signs a collaboration agreement with Foresta to develop the 'Emplea Verde SBT' project, which will contribute to employability, training, the creation of climate shelters in schools, and the maintenance of gardens and green areas in the municipality.
The Department of Local Development of the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council is finalizing the launch of the 'Emplea Verde SBT' project for the employability and training of long-term unemployed people and those with difficulties in entering the labor market, especially women, young people under 30 and over 45 in this municipality.
Funded 50% by the City Council and the Canary Islands Development Fund (Fdcan), this project will be developed during 2026 and the remainder of 2025 through a collaboration agreement with the Canary Islands Reforestation Foundation (Foresta), with a total budget of 600.000 euros.
The agreement, approved unanimously by the full Municipal Corporation in its session last Thursday, November 27, has been ratified by the mayor, Marco Aurelio Pérez Sánchez, and the manager of Foresta, Sergio Armas Robaina.
The Councillor for Local Development, Elena Álamo Vega, highlighted after the signing "the importance" of this initiative which, "fulfills the dual objective of contributing to the labor integration of people with difficulties accessing employment and also training them to acquire professional skills within the gardening sector," she said.
“'Emplea Verde SBT' is an intervention project based on the need to contribute to the environmental improvement of the municipality, to which it brings economic, social and landscape benefits, such as the hiring and improvement of the professional qualification of its beneficiaries and the maintenance, repopulation and increase of the green area of the territory,” says Elena Álamo.
Environmental reforestation work
For the development of this project, Foresta will hire 27 people from the municipality, following strategic line no. 3 of Active Employment Policies of the Socioeconomic Development Program of Gran Canaria FDCAN 2023-2027.
While receiving specialized training, the project's users will carry out tasks such as clearing and cleaning vegetation, removing invasive species, digging holes and planting new vegetation, fertilizing, watering, installing drip irrigation systems, pruning, and other environmental maintenance and reforestation work in the municipality's green areas.
Divided into teams supervised by Foresta's instructors, the new workers will have 40-hour work weeks, Monday through Friday, from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. In addition to gaining work experience, they will receive three courses totaling 140 hours of instruction, covering forest risk prevention, the use and operation of forestry machinery, and the design and installation of irrigation systems.
