International Biodiversity Day celebrated with reopening of Faial Botanical Garden
After six months of works, the Faial Botanical Garden reopens on Sunday, May 22, by occasion of the celebrations of the International Biodiversity Day with several activities throughout the afternoon, including guided tours, tea tasting, presentation of the promotional film about the Natural Park Faial and the presentation of the page Sentir e Interpretar os Açores (Feel and Interpret the Azores).
The opening of the expansion and restructuring of the garden is the culmination of a major investment carried out there over the last five years.
The garden is a fundamental part of the Regional Government’s strategy in the conservation of the natural flora of the Azores. The living collection and the seed bank make possible the conservation of the flora of the Azores by preserving an internationally recognised natural world.
These interventions covered a total area about 8,100 square meters (m2), which includes 5,700 m2 of existing garden and 2,400 m2 of expansion area. This project was intended to renew the Botanical Garden, enhancing its capacity to receive visitors, its landscape quality and its botanic collection.
The expansion area is a new space containing endemic herbaceous plants and their respective habitats, hence increasing the ex-situ conservation of rare species of the Azores.
The Seed Bank was created in 2003, through an Interrreg project, allowing the conservation of rare plants species of the Azores. In 2007, the Visitor Centre was built, providing the Botanical Garden with a herbarium, an auditorium, a library, an exhibition hall and a bar where infusions made from garden plants are served. In 2010, an orchidarium was built to house a collection of orchids from an important private collection from Faial.
Over the past few centuries, botanical gardens worldwide have played a fundamental role, especially regarding the acclimation of plant species for agricultural and ornamentation purposes as well as the dissemination of world diversity to populations.
In recent years, Botanical Gardens have focused on the conservation of biological diversity, environmental education, research and leisure. With the works carried out in recent years, the Faial Botanical Garden fully complies with these goals.