Northwestern University Ecological Park and Botanic Gardens
Institution Code: NUEBG
BGCI Member: Yes
About the Northwestern University Ecological Park and Botanic Gardens
The Northwestern University Ecotourism Park and Botanic Garden is a place where you can experience nature’s beauty and splendor and enjoy the touch of Ilocano Hospitality and Ingenuity. The largest Ecopark & Botanic Garden established in the Northern Luzon, Philippines.
The Establishment of Ecotourism Park and Botanic Garden was based on a policy of achieving harmony between resource protection and public use. It is consumptive because of the integration of Agricultural produce, exotic restaurant, processed goods and research products. At the same time non consumptive for it offers recreational activities that are closely linked to natural history and wildlife, such as bird watching, butterfly watching, nature photography, botanical study, mountain biking, hiking and other recreations like camping and training.
The Ecotourism Park is unique in possessing wide range of eye-catching natural features, an advantage over other conventional tourism parks. The Park emphasizes on nature’s flora and wildlife which distinguishes it from other tourist destinations in the Ilocos Province.
The 7.8 hectares NWU Botanic Garden is the first in the province and probably one of the biggest in the region. Compared with other Botanical Gardens in the Philippines, the garden has a broader spectrum of collections. The Collections ranges from tropical forest trees, flowering ornamental, dessert-succulent plants, ferns and allies, grasses and its allies, wild flowers, vines, parasitic, carnivorous, epiphytes, cycads and palms, crops and variegated cultivars.
As a component of the Northwestern University Ecotourism Park, the Botanic Garden primarily aims to:
Promote scientific research on the collection, identification, propagation, conservation, reintroduction & proper utilization (ethno-botany), of all known species of the kingdom plantae.
Create a broad collection of living plants as gene bank/stocks for horticultural trade, herbarium specimen exchange and botanical scientific cooperation around the world.
Supports global alliance with other Botanic Institutions participating in plant conservation.
Implements an ex situ and in situ conservation program especially to our Philippine flora that are now in the verge of extinction.
Highlights the role of Botanic Gardens in support to environmental awareness and sustainable development, through community extension as a big factor in mitigating climate change.
Establish microenvironments to display the world’s Flora according to their latest system of classification as live specimen for educational as well as recreational purposes.
Touring the garden may take you an hour of strolling along its caterpillar pathways rolling down the slopes. Cultivars of different families are at their vast vigor. With their spectacular and showy inflorescence against colorful foliage, one cant help but wonder about their nomenclature, their cultivation and their propagation.
The Living Collections
To date, the collection includes 226 families and 114 subfamilies of plants and morethan 2,100 species.
COMPONENTS AND ECOLOGICAL FEATURES:
Systematic Living Plant Collections
Ben A. Nicolas Collection of Philippines Trees
NUEBG Entomological Project
Garden Terraces
Orchidarium
Asclepiadarium
Nurseries
Tissue Culture Laboratory
Seed Bank Project
Herbarium of the Northwestern Luzon, Philippines
NUEBG - Museum of Natural History
Begonia Conservatory
Fernery
Philippine Gymnosperm Collection
Asparagalean Collection
Arboretum
Ultramafic Garden
FACILITIES
Camping Sites
Garden Theater
Guest House
Sports Complex
Shooting range
Hiking Trail
Garden Patio
Fish ponds
Main Address:
Northwestern University Ecological Park and Botanic Gardens
Airport Avenue
Laoag City
Ilocos Norte 2900 Philippines
Telephone: 0908-533-0037
Fax: (077) 771-3814
URL: http://www.nwu.edu.ph/index.php/nuebg
Primary Email: nwu_ecopark@yahoo.com