Forests around the world have fallen victim to fire and drought, and the lush laurel trees of the Canary Islands are no exception.
“In recent years, the Canaries have undergone a severe process of desertification and we’ve lost a lot of forest through agriculture,” environmentalist Gustavo Viera told The Guardian.
“And then in 2007 and 2009, as a result of climate change, there were major fires in forested areas that are normally wet.”
As the technical director of Life Nieblas, a publicly funded water collection project, Viera and his team have been at the forefront of “cloud-milking” — a zero-energy technique that uses a netting of metal pins to collect condensation from low-hanging fog.
“We needed to solve the problem of the fragility of the netting while minimizing the environmental impact,” Viera said.
“We developed a system that imitates pine needles, which are very good for capturing water while also letting the air pass through, and it’s a system that can easily be replicated in other locations and that’s also easy to transport to where it’s needed.”
After fog passes through the metal fronds and water droplets fall into containers below, Life Nieblas workers use the water to irrigate vulnerable new saplings as they rebuild the forest.
“The Canaries are the perfect laboratory to develop these techniques,” said Vicenç Carabassa, the project’s head scientist.
“But there are other areas where the conditions are optimal and where there is a tradition of water capture from fog, such as Chile and Morocco.”
“We’re living with drought throughout the Mediterranean and also in the Canaries,” Carabassa added. “And now, every drop of water counts.”
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A version of this article originally appeared in the 2025 Environment Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image via Oleksandra Zelena / Pexels
