At the start of February, the Jardín Botánico Nacional de Viña del Mar in Chile was almost completely destroyed, and four people associated with the garden sadly lost their lives, in the voracious wildfires that have devastated central-southern Chile.Following these tragic events and devastation of the native natural areas, plant collections, greenhouses, research centre, and staff homes of one of our valued members, BGCI is now opening the Disaster Recovery Fund to facilitate international donations directly to the garden to help our member garden rebuild following this tragedy.All donations to BGCI’s Disaster Recovery Fund in the next two months will be vital for:
- Relocating collections to safer sites
- Rebuilding of shaded area and glass house to hold the conservation and research plant collections which survived the fire
- Purchasing essential materials, equipment, and tools for the garden such as engraving machine for labels
- Rebuilding seed and cutting propagation facilities
- Rebuilding of the small in vitro and DNA histology laboratories.
Follow this link to learn more and donate.
