The “Montaña de Luz” a “living laboratory” of about 30.000 plants in Ecuador
June 24, 2023
By Susana Madera |
Imbabura (Ecuador) (EFE). - What was once a rural hill, full of brushwood and bushes has transformed into a “living laboratory” with around 30.000 sowed plants of different species and varieties in over 40 hectares in the Pablo Arenas parish, in the Ecuadorian province of Imbabura.
Known formerly as the “San Juan” hill, this elevation of 2.240 meters of altitude is now “Montana de Luz”, a space where the brush has been replaced by 3.700 fruit trees of 50 kinds, 600 bamboos of 9 kinds and 900 palm trees of 27 kinds.
Additionally, 600 conifers of 26 kinds, 300 “Arupo” trees, 300 agave plants, succulents, aloe, and cacti, around 1.000 orchids and a thousand bougainvillea of 25 colors, among others.
And although it is still under construction, the creators of the “Montana de Luz” community want to make it one of the biggest and most biodiverse botanical gardens in the Andean region, and by doing so, provide Ecuador with one of its biggest living laboratories, which delves into the importance of protecting and preserving the nature.
Also transformed into an educational center about the significance of plants, and adequate care of the natural resources, visitors can go through different theme gardens at “Montana de Luz”: the Zen, the orchid garden, the desert, the silence and even the shamanic, in walks of up to 90 minutes long, said Sara Hurtado, member of the community, to EFE.
Genetic and vegetal resources
With the purpose of contributing to the preservation of genetic and vegetal resources, and supporting the sustainable use of vegetal species, the creators of the community “Montaña de Luz” have taken around six years to open paths, build reservoirs and reforest the hill.
“These are zones with great anthropic pressure, which have gone through strong deforestation processes, vegetation shortage through fells of trees to get charcoal, wood or to open up spaces to farm, which also brings other processes such as the loss of soil by erosion”, said the Spanish geologist German Martin to EFE.
Therefore, he highlighted the reforestation process performed, since it “prevents erosion, catches nutrients in the soil, brings fauna and that helps maintain all the trophic network”.
“This abundant quantity of vegetal species has helped a big number of animals, that were abandoned or reduced in number, find a “shelter where to spread”, indicated surrounded by colorful vegetation and the song of birds high on the mountain, where it is now common to see even wild rabbits.
High biodiversity of Ecuador
Carlos Merizalde, who was the director of the International Cooperation of the UNESCO World Geopark Imbabura, recalled that, six years ago, the San Juan hill was a “bare mountain, practically deforested” until Marcelo Vinueza arrived, “with preservation ideas of communitarian development, of different local development”, of ecotourism, of eco-spirituality, of a healthy diet.
And “started to revegetate with an interesting variety of plants, a wide variety, very nice, and little by little it has been repopulated by hawks, eagles, kestrels, and rabbits, and this is a product, fairly, of this growth, this outcropping of the biodiversity in the territory”, he explained.
Merizalde estimates that “Montana de Luz” can be, at this time, the botanical garden “which has the biggest biodiversity in projects or initiatives of this kind in the Andean world of Ecuador”.
Sustainability, resilience and identity
Furthermore, “people, who come to enjoy this natural environment, find a space of peace, tranquility, and pure air” said while highlighting a development with sustainability criteria, resilience, identity, “because here we talk about geology, biodiversity, and culture”, of spirituality, of healing.
Luckily, little by little people and entities are getting to understand that his change of behavior does not depend on others, but themselves”, commented to EFE.
We must sometimes be “a little crazy, in the good sense of the word, to undertake these initiatives that benefit the community, the territory”, indicated in the place where each action looks forward to promoting environmental education that favors changes in the behavior of its visitors in the benefit of nature.
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