BBC Documentary airs on Madeira

The BBC recently screened a three-part documentary featuring the Madeira archipelago. The final part of a three-part series entitled “Nature’s Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution” was broadcast on the 1st Feb 2016. The publicity material explains: “Professor Richard Fortey travels to Madeira to examine what happens to a volcanic island as it nears the end of its life-cycle and starts sinking back into the sea.

Here, in the island’s laurisilva forest, he examines the remains of an ancient forest that once carpeted all of Europe, finds island lizards that live to be four times older than their mainland counterparts, and meets a huge wolf spider. With the help of local divers, he also discovers an unexpectedly rich marine habitat populated by whales, dolphins and unusual deep-sea species that have much to tell us about the changing nature of our seas”.

More publicity for Madeira was generated late January 2016 when CNN published a list of 19 reasons to visit the island – describing it as the “Island of eternal springtime”. Meantime the Regional Secretariat for the Economy, Tourism and Culture promotion using social media featuring Cristiano Ronaldo is reckoned to have reached 33 million people in its first five months.