The Yachay Botanic Garden (JBY), managed by Yachay Tech University and Yachay EP, and the Botanic Garden Conservation International (BGCI) will start the “Conservation Horticulture” workshop that will take place from September 30 to October 8, 2016. Members of 9 national botanic gardens will be invited to attend this academic event, where professional horticulturists from England will train national botanic gardens in ex situ conservation of native species (out of their natural habitat). Additionally, this training course will strengthen theoretical knowledge and know-how, meaning how to develop collections of conservation of native plants and create exhibits of live plants for a better dissemination to the public of the biodiversity in the country.

“Conservation Horticulture” will be taught by Joachim Garzfeld (BGCI), Gareth Cox, Paul Eguia, Iain Middlebrook y Rupert Harbinson (Kew Gardens, England). They will train all attendees on the use of economic and sustainable techniques, and the registry, monitoring and revision of data and results according to the collection policies of a botanic garden.

This training course is important for Ecuador as there are around 18000 native species, out of which 5500 are endemic (meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world). This is why JBY and Yachay Tech acknowledge the importance of promoting conservation techniques for native species within the facilities of all botanic gardens in the country. Since a good part of our native species are not domesticated, the course will address conservation techniques for “wild” species in a space foreign to their own. Hugo Romero, Yachay Tech faculty member and current President of the Technical Committee of JBY, believes the importance of this knowledge goes back to the possibility of preserving native species in safe environments.