Several municipalities have been interested in replicating the experience of the Las Salinas Plant Laboratory and transferring the results of this research to their cities, in order to bring the wild species native to the area to urban green areas, since it is a very low maintenance vegetation that allows to face climate change and the water crisis. In a note published by La Estrella de Valparaíso, it is explained the experience recently lived by the expert of the Plant Laboratory, Salvador Donghi, in San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, in the region of O’Higgins, where he was invited to give a talk in the Municipal Theater, to a breakfast with environmental organizations, to a selection of species palette in the field and to an interview in a local radio station. You can read the complete note below: The promoter of this initiative that proposes to bring wild species to urban green areas was invited to San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, in the O’Higgins region. It was last January at the summer school of the Chilean Association of Municipalities that the seed was planted and began to sprout and replicate in different communes. On that occasion, the creators of the “Las Salinas Vegetable Laboratory”, located on the site of the same name in Viña del Mar, explained how this initiative was born, which aims to modify the concept of highly irrigated green areas for ones that incorporate the wild species offered by each geography. Several municipalities have been interested in replicating the experience and transferring the results of this research, which shows how it is possible to bring wild species to urban green areas. Very low-maintenance vegetation to face climate change and the water crisis, two emergencies from which no part of the planet is exempt. Councilors, municipal officials and community groups are increasingly aware that it is necessary to change the grass and exotic species for native vegetation, with little irrigation and low maintenance, which also provides ecosystem services, such as significantly increasing the number of birds and pollinating insects, while fulfilling the ornamental function of squares and public spaces. In San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, in the O’Higgins region, they took it very seriously and, motivated after visiting the experience in Las Salinas, they invited the Plant Laboratory to that commune. The biologist Salvador Donghi, promoter of the plant laboratory, gave a presentation to the whole community in the Municipal Theater of this commune. Mayor, councilmen, officials, neighbors, leaders, environmental activists, teachers and students wanted to learn in order to apply the same formula in their common spaces. Councilman Víctor Gálvez, president of the Environmental Commission of the municipality of San Vicente, who led a visit to Viña del Mar a few months ago to see the plant laboratory in situ, invited the laboratory to the commune. “It is essential that the community knows about this. So that people change the switch. The wild vegetation floor is little valued because it is there. The idea is to value it so that people know the benefits and potential it has. It changes the way we see things. It gives us the possibility of replicating in the urban sector what is happening in the green areas of our hills in San Vicente.
Jaime González, mayor of San Vicente, stated that it is vitally important to facilitate all aspects of environmental culture. “It is a great challenge for the municipalities to integrate these aspects. And that the community gets involved so that this becomes more and more concrete. So we are grateful and hopefully this will not be the first time we have Salvador Donghi in the commune”, said the communal chief.
