diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index ddc4b64..ad59fe3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ permissions:
   contents: read
 
 env:
-  PYTHON_VERSION: "3.8"
+  PYTHON_VERSION: "3.9"
   RUST_BACKTRACE: "1"
 
 
diff --git a/h3ronpy/CHANGES.rst b/h3ronpy/CHANGES.rst
index 1748098..40484c4 100644
--- a/h3ronpy/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/h3ronpy/CHANGES.rst
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ Versioning <https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html>`__.
 Unreleased
 ----------
 
+- The minimum supported python version is now 3.9.
+
 0.21.1 - 2024-10-04
 -------------------
 
diff --git a/h3ronpy/Cargo.toml b/h3ronpy/Cargo.toml
index 0c731ff..fdc7448 100644
--- a/h3ronpy/Cargo.toml
+++ b/h3ronpy/Cargo.toml
@@ -25,6 +25,6 @@ ndarray = { version = "0.15", features = ["rayon"] }
 numpy = "0.21"
 ordered-float = ">=2.0.1"
 py_geo_interface = { version = "0.8", features = ["f64", "wkb"] }
-pyo3 = { version = "0.21", features = ["extension-module", "abi3", "abi3-py38"] }
+pyo3 = { version = "0.21", features = ["extension-module", "abi3", "abi3-py39"] }
 rasterh3 = { version = "^0.8", features = ["rayon"] }
 rayon = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/h3ronpy/pyproject.toml b/h3ronpy/pyproject.toml
index f5643b9..412f92e 100644
--- a/h3ronpy/pyproject.toml
+++ b/h3ronpy/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [build-system]
 requires = [
-    "maturin==1.2",
+    "maturin>=1.7",
 ]
 build-backend = "maturin"
 
@@ -21,8 +21,7 @@ readme = "../README.rst"
 
 dependencies = [
     "numpy<2",
-    "pyarrow>=10.0",
-    "Shapely>=1.7",
+    "pyarrow>=17.0"
 ]
 classifiers = [
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
@@ -33,14 +32,14 @@ classifiers = [
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
 polars = [
-    "polars>=1.0"
+    "polars>=1"
 ]
 pandas = [
-    "geopandas>=0.10",
-    "fiona<1.10"
+    "geopandas>=1"
 ]
 test = [
     "rasterio",
+    "Shapely>=1.7",
     "pytest>=6",
     "h3>=3.7",
     "pytest-benchmark"
diff --git a/h3ronpy/python/h3ronpy/arrow/raster.py b/h3ronpy/python/h3ronpy/arrow/raster.py
index 95b0ccc..1dbb03b 100644
--- a/h3ronpy/python/h3ronpy/arrow/raster.py
+++ b/h3ronpy/python/h3ronpy/arrow/raster.py
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@
 
 """
 
-import shapely
 from h3ronpy.h3ronpyrs import raster
 from .. import DEFAULT_CELL_COLUMN_NAME
 from . import _to_uint64_array, _to_arrow_array
@@ -136,7 +135,7 @@ def rasterize_cells(
     """
     Generate a raster numpy array from arrays of cells and values.
 
-    This function requires the ``rasterio`` library.
+    This function requires the ``rasterio`` and `shapely` libraries to be installed.
 
     :param cells: array with H3 cells
     :param values: array with the values which shall be written into the raster
@@ -148,6 +147,7 @@ def rasterize_cells(
     """
     from rasterio.transform import from_bounds
     from rasterio.features import rasterize
+    import shapely
 
     cells = _to_uint64_array(cells)
     values = _to_arrow_array(values, None)