The Descent to 2008 coincided Relief on Sunday. The number of participants was very high and with them, the number of people of all ages separate from the Pilgrimage and its tradition to climb the volcano and lower it to the race, destroying vegetation and deepening gully that have turned down the path of the cone.
This savagery because it has another name, is expressly prohibited in the Reserve Management Plan adopted in 2005. The Briefing Paper of the Master Plan, approved a year earlier, explained:
Information Document Master Plan Special Natural Reserve Güímar badlands
definitely Approved by June 2004 COTMAC
natural environment, land use and impacts
The current configuration of the Book is a product of the interaction of human activities on the environment. As a result of these operations and uses, the Special Natural Reserve of the Badlands of Guimaras has undergone several changes, some of which have not increased size, because the circumstances which have produced them, but other new and traditional continue to pose a threat to the conservation of natural resources and landscape it.
...
public use within the Reserve, deserves special attention a new impact year after year, is producing a steady and accelerating decline of Big Mountain, is the massive rise to it, every September 7, coinciding with the massive celebration of the Pilgrimage of Socorro. For several decades, hundreds of participants in the fall of the Virgin abandon the pilgrimage to reach the foot of the volcano. From here a steep path up to the northern edge of the crater and then run down the slope of the volcano in the direction of El Socorro. This practice is causing extensive damage to the Mountain, where the vegetation is destroyed along the path of ascent and descent. Wide rows, completely bare, the slopes are affected as a mark, more and more indelible.
The latest data from the Cabildo (Report of the Pilgrimage of Aeonium Relief 2002 S. COOP.) Show that people's participation in this activity is increasing year after year, having registered for the year 2002 a share of the Mountain climb some 5,500 people (keep in mind that the holiday celebration coincided, so that participation was significantly higher) of the 19,000 who participated in the Pilgrimage of Socorro, with a concentration maximum point 1,000 people (mostly young of 12-20 years) in the cone between 6.30 and 7.30 in the morning. Analyzing recent studies Cabildo about this activity, we can ensure that there tends to decrease, the contrary has been maintained despite the awareness campaigns to counter it, made since 1991 by the Department of the Environment in collaboration with Cultural Association local (Güímar Heritage Group) and the City of Guimaras.
Then more pictures of the Descent of the year:
1990 
The fighting in 2000 threatened tradition 
What was protected in 2006 The problem of falling in droves in the Mountain 
The importance of sand imbalances in ecosystems: the example of Guam
key species and the sixth great extinction 
Ecological corridors mattress zones around protected areas: the badlands Scratch Güímar
Some key findings and ideas for the future 
> See the album of images talk
hall of the Leisure and Cultural Society Casino of Guimaras. 
Javier Eloy Campos Torres. Atty. in Fine Arts. Professor, School of Art "Fernando Estévez. 
Chaxiraxi, the cosmic mother.