Botanical Garden adds university support

In a working meeting held yesterday between Marcelo Cabrera, mayor of Cuenca, and Francisco Salgado, rector of the University of Azuay (UDA), it was agreed that this center for higher studies will involve its support in the management and administration of the Cuenca Botanical Garden project .
The project aims to convert this space into a Scientific Center for Environmental Research and Education. At the moment the first phase is executed in five hectares with an investment of 3.246.489 dollars and it has the advance of 8,83%, according to plan.
Cabrera said that the main objective is the conservation of the Andean ecosystem of the south of the country, and to show the Botanical Garden of Cuenca as a Center of Knowledge.
Antonio Crespo, director of the School of Biology of the UDA, participated in the work meeting, who highlighted the 20 experience they have in this field. "The idea is to contribute from the research and in the botanical field so that it is an example at a country and Latin American level," he said.
For his part, Pablo Abad, Secretary of Planning and Governance of the Municipality of Cuenca, recalled that this is part of the Green Belt program "and the Megaparks system that has provided greater green spaces to the basins.
The project as a whole will be located in the Huayna Capac parish, south of the city of Cuenca, in the sector comprised by the banks of the Tarqui and Yanuncay rivers, from the Tres Puentes to the Gapal Bridge.
Santiago López, director of the El Barranco Foundation, said that they will have samples of plant species from the Austro, which through a series of circuits will be linked to the network of green areas in the area. For its execution, the project will be developed in three disaggregated phases of the total extension of the land of 24,8 hectares.
The first phase will be located on an area of ​​approximately five hectares in which a demonstration garden with traditional Andean crops, fruit trees and a representative plant collection of the different ecological levels of the province is projected.
The second and third phases include the recovery of the banks towards the Tres Puentes and Gapal respectively, with urban agriculture projects and improvement of linear parks with a total area of ​​19,8 hectares. (REM) - (I)

BENEFICIARIES
- The direct beneficiaries of the Cuenca Botanical Garden project that, according to municipal planning will be executed in three stages, are 16.262 inhabitants and indirectly the entire population of Cuenca.