Jardín Botánico de Cartagena

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Colombia - Bolivar - Turbaco

Institution Code: JBGP

BGCI Member: Yes

About the Jardín Botánico de Cartagena

Our mission is to educate, investigate and preserve the Colombian Caribbean flora and fauna. We aim to provide botanically and responsibly sourced material for reintroduction and reforestation, to educate the people about the diversity and peculiarity of the Caribbean dry forests. We also host graduate students to do projects on the local flora and fauna, and we maintain a reference collection of herbarium specimens and an extensive library on Neotropical flora.
The garden is situated around at 10.354644 North latitude and 75.429485 West longitude, in the hills above Cartagena in the satellite town of Turbaco. It occupies a total of 9 hectares, which is divided into 5 ha of planted collections and 4 ha of natural forest. It lies around 100 meters above sea level and has an average annual rainfall of 232 mm. Rain falls mostly from late August to early December, with a shorter rainy season in April. The rest of the year it enjoys a dry sunny climate with high average temperatures, although mist and a frequent breeze from the hills make it a pleasant climate. Despite the long dry season, the natural spring supplies the garden with ample fresh water throughout the year. Some of the paths are rather steep, so be sure to wear good, comfortable shoes on your visit. It is a wonderful place to contemplate, relax and to get into close contact with the natural wonders of the Colombian Caribbean.
The natural flora of the Botanical Garden is diverse and well represented both in the natural forest and in the planted collections. It is one of the most important collections of plants from the Caribbean and because the dry Caribbean forests are highly threatened it makes this garden even of greater importance for conservation and as a seed source for reintroduction programs.

The garden has many well-developed specimens of trees, shrubs and herbs. There are some incredibly large specimens of giant cashew (Anacardium excelsum), and white fig (Ficus maxima), which rise above the forest canopy with their massive crowns and huge trunks supported by large buttress roots. One giant cashew is a focal point in the garden and may be over 500 years old. Other frequent trees in the garden are Aspidosperma desmanthum, Astrocaryum malybo, Attalea butyracea, Bursera simaruba, Cavanillesia platanifolia, Cecropia peltata, Cedrela odorata, Ficus citrifolia, Mammea americana, Nectandra turbacensis, Pachyra aquatica, Pseudobombax septenatum, Sterculia apetala and Swietenia macrophylla. Many of these species have valuable wood and are thus highly threatened in their remaining populations outside the garden.

Main Address:
Jardín Botánico de Cartagena
Sector Matute, km 5 Autopista I-90 (Cartagena–Turbaco)
Turbaco
Bolivar 131007 Colombia

Telephone: +57 (5) 6637207
Fax: +57 (5) 6638340
URL: http://jbgp.org.co
Primary Email: direccion@jbgp.org.co

Staff Details

  • Director's Name: Santiago Madriñán
    Curator's Name: Maria Paula Contreras
    Plant Records Officer's Name: Maria Paula Contreras
  • Total Staff:
    Horticultural Staff Number: 4
    Educational Staff Number: 3
    Research Staff Number: 5
    Administration Staff Number: 2

About the Garden

  • Institution Type: Botanic Garden
  • Status
  • Status: Private: Yes
    Status: State: No
    Status: Educational: Yes
    Status: Municipal: No
    Status: Satellite: No
    Status: Trust: Yes
  • Date founded: 1978
  • Physical Data
  • Natural Vegetation Area: Yes
    Natural vegetation area: Size: 4 Hectares
  • Landscaped Area: Yes
    Landscaped Area: Size: 5 Hectares
  • Total Area: 9 Hectares
    Latitude: 10.354644
    Longitude: -75.429485
    Annual Rainfall: 232 mm
    Altitude: 100.00 Metres
  • Locality: Information
  • Locality: Garden Name: Jardín Botánico de Cartagena "Guillermo Piñeres"
  • Local Address:
  • Locality: City: Turbaco
  • Locality: State:

Features and Facilities

  • Herbarium: Yes
    Herbarium: Number of Specimens: 15000
    Arboretum: Yes
    Arboretum Size: 1
  • Micropropagation/ Tissue Culture Facilities: No
    Seed Bank: Yes
    Published Plant Catalogue: No
    Computer Plant Record System: Yes
  • Open to public: Yes
    Friends society: Yes
    Retail Outlet: Shop: No
    Retail Outlet: Plant Sales: Yes
    Disabled access: No
  • Number of Volunteers: 4

Plant Collections

  • Accession Number: 1000
    Cultivation Taxa Num: 324
  • Special Collections:Arboretum: This is a collection of over 100 native and exotic tree species, some threatened and many of economic interest. We are currently building capacity to have an ex-situ collection of trees native to the Caribbean region of Colombia.
    Orchard: A small area is designated to show unusual fruiting trees of the Caribbean and beyond.
    Palmetum: Our palm collection houses a selection of Caribbean and exotic palm trees.
    Drug and Fragrance Garden: We have a small collection of perfumed, medicinal and psychoactive plants.
    Xerophytic Garden: This is a selection of cacti and succulents from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Madagascar. The collection is currently under development. It shows how a garden can be created with limited water resources.
    Evolutionary Garden: We are currently planning and developing our evolutionary garden collection, which will display lycopods, ferns, conifers and early dicots (Magnoliads, Pipevines, etc.). The aim is to show how plants evolved from small moss-like plants spread by spores, to wind-pollinated cone-bearing plants and finally flowering plants pollinated and distributed by animals. We have recently undertaken an expedition to Santa Marta to collect ferns and gymnosperms for this garden.
    Ornamental Garden: Beautiful meadows surrounded by ornamental borders connect the scientific collections. There are many unusual ornamental plants, some of which were obtained through exchange with other botanical gardens. The ornamental garden includes a nice collection of Zingiberales, the bananas, gingers and relatives.
    Native forest: Four hectares of primary dry forest have been preserved in the garden, including some very large trees and a diverse flora and fauna. Primary forest is highly threatened in Caribbean Colombia, and thus this makes it an important refuge.
  • Invasive Species Monitoring: Yes
    Invasive Species Policy: No
    ABS Policy: Yes
    Plant Collection Policy: No

Conservation Programmes

  • Conservation Programme: Yes
    Medicinal Plant Programme: Yes
    Ex Situ Conservation Programme: Yes
    Reintroduction Programme: Yes

Research Programmes

  • Biotechnology: No
    Plant Breeding: Yes
    Conservation - Biology: Yes
    Conservation - Genetics: No
    Data Management Systems and Information Technology: Yes
    Ecology: Yes
    Ecosystem Conservation: Yes
    Education: Yes
    Ethnobotany: Yes
    Exploration: Yes
    Floristics: Yes
    Horticulture: Yes
    Invasive Species Biology and Control: No
    Molecular Genetics: No
    Pollination Biology: Yes
    Restoration Ecology: Yes
    Seed/Spore Biology: Yes
    Systematics and Taxonomy: Yes
    Sustainability: Yes
    Pharmacology: No
    Agriculture: Yes
    Land Restoration: Yes
    Urban Environments: Yes

Education Programmes

  • Visitor/Education Centre: Yes
    Education Signs in Garden: Yes
    Public Lectures/Talks: No
    Education Booklets/Leaflets: Yes
    Guided Tours: Yes
    Permanent Public Displays: No
    Special Exhibitions: Yes
    Courses for School Children: Yes
    Courses for University/College Students: Yes
    Courses for General Public: Yes
    Education Programme: Yes

Ecological restoration and conservation of the Matute basin

The Cartagena Botanical Garden has been undertaking a leading role in research and study of the tropical dry forest from the Caribbean region of Colombia. The garden aims to restore and conserve an area with historical and ecological importance, the Matute basin. As there are remain pristine forest areas, one of the main objectives is to generate connectivity between those zones. By doing this, animal habitat may be ensured.

The Matute basin is located between the Caribbean municipalities of Turbaco and Cartagena (Bolívar, Colombia), and its vegetation is a tropical dry forest (TDF). The TDF is one of Colombia's most endangered ecosystems; only 8% of its original extent remains. The Caribbean TDF is mainly threatened by the cities' expansion and livestock farming, leading to biodiversity loss, continuous floodings and the rise of carbon emissions. Given this, the protection and restoration of areas with forest remnants is the first step to overcome this problem. The Matute region has always been of importance to the Cartagena district, from 1905 to 1940, it provided the water to the first city aqueduct. Despite its importance, during recent years, there has been a rise in the development of housing projects, non-sustainable tourism, mining, and livestock in the area. If the development of these activities continues to grow in a non-sustainable way, there will not be enough vegetation to maintain the water source. We aim to restore and conserve the Matute basin, as a solution to the high risk of forest cover loss that it currently faces.

Native tree saplings planting during restoration activities

This project aims to conserve and restore the high basin of the Matute region, the major hydrological basin of the region. Three main conservation and restoration strategies have been implemented: (1) the development of an awareness program with landowners of the Matute basin, (2) commitment agreements to conserve the vegetation near the water, and (3) the propagation of native tree species for active restoration. These actions will conserve and enrich the vegetation of the Matute basin, the closest and the main resource of freshwater of Cartagena.

By the end of this project, we expect to generate a conservation area for the Matute drainage basin. The project will improve the ecosystem status by creating areas under conservation and restoring degraded areas. The protected areas will have a high chance of sustainability going forwards since by declaring Natural Reserves of the Civil Society, the landowners may get a property tax exemption for their land. The protection of the Matute drainage basin will improve drainage of water to the Cartagena district, preventing flooding during the rainy season, protecting tens of thousands of citizens. It will also prevent the advance of deforestation of the tropical dry forest present in the area by limiting non-sustainable activities. The prevention of deforestation will protect the current carbon stock of the forest. It will also increase the species population present in the area and will generate a rise in the carbon intake of the forest of the Matute drainage basin. In conjunction with a Colombian charity organization, in 2018, we planted 1,900 trees in the proximities of spring water sources. By the end of 2020, we will plant 1,500 more in strategic zones to generate ecological connectivity in the remaining forest areas. In addition to plant conservation, we have used camera traps to document the wildlife, as a starting point for the development of fauna conservation strategies.

Restoration site with native trees planted

 

For more information on this project, please contact Santiago Madriñán


Ecological restoration of the Caribbean dry forest: native plant species propagation

The Cartagena Botanical Garden “Guillermo Piñeres” has been undertaking a leading role in the propagation of tropical dry forest plant species to support ecological restoration actions in rural and urban landscapes. Our scope focuses on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. We aim to ensure genetic variability by successfully study population dynamics and developing conservation strategies by working with local communities through environmental education. We conduct ex situ conservation in our nursery facilities by propagating native plants with an emphasis on threatened species. Our goal is to establish standard protocols for seed germination and seedling management to guarantee healthy plant material.

 The goal of this project is to develop restoration and conservation actions in rural and urban landscapes in the Caribbean tropical dry forest. The development of this goal will contribute to stop the destruction of native tropical dry forests and promote their recovery and sustainable management over time. In this sense, we have the following objectives:

  1. Research on the propagation of native tropical dry forest plant species in the Colombian Caribbean
  2. Generation of public educational content on plant propagation and ecological restoration of the Colombian Caribbean tropical dry forest
  3. Design and implement restoration actions in degraded tropical dry forest areas in the Colombian Caribbean
  4. Develop conservation agreements with local landowners to create private conservation areas in vulnerable Colombian Caribbean tropical dry forests

 Native seed propagation

In the Cartagena Botanical Garden, we have developed a Research Nursery to research plant propagation of native species. With that facility, we were able to perform a master research project on Caribbean seeds ecology in conjunction with high education institutions such as Universidad de Los Andes and Universidad del Valle. In 2017 we executed a project with the UCG6 community in Cartagena to contribute to the conservation and restoration of the Ciénaga de la Virgen and its biodiversity by constructing restoration school nurseries and educating children of three schools on tropical dry forest propagation and restoration. In 2019 we executed a project with the community of Camarón, Montes de María, including the installation of a tree nursery, courses in tree nursery management and forest restoration, signing of conservation agreements with local landowners and implementation of tree planting and other restoration activities. Those actions allowed us to improve biological connectivity, protect areas of tropical dry forest and create educational content; there are still activities to be fulfilled to reach our goal.

For more information on this project, please contact Santiago Madriñán