Ecobreves – CHILE: A Giant Plant Nursery for Santiago

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Jan 21 2008 (IPS) - The largest urban plant nursery in Latin America, located in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, will open its doors in mid-2008. It will occupy 14 hectares and produce 100,000 trees per year, including native species like they quillay (Quillaja saponaria L.), peumo (Cryptocarya alba), Chilean palm (Jubaea chilensis), mountain cypress (Austrocedrus chilensis) and maitén (Maytenus).

“With the nursery we will be able to carry out all lines of action of the Green Santiago project,” launched in 2006 to increase green areas in the capital, home to 6.5 million people, Santiago Del Pozo, regional director of the National Forestry Agency, told Tierramérica.

The nursery is being built by the Metropolitan Region's government, whose executive, Alvaro Erazo, cut ground this week at the site, which the private real estate company El Bosque has ceded to the government for 30 years.