Urban community-led conservation
A case study from the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands are a ‘text book’ region of plant species richness and endemism. Over the last year, botanists at Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum (OBGA) have been working in collaboration with London’s Natural History Museum, the Jardín de Aclimatación de La Orotav, and Matías Hernandez Gonzalez — founder of a local nature reserve called Chaboco Natura and an environmental charity called Arrecife Natura on the Island of Lanzarote. Together, this collaborative work examines and documents aspects of the internationally important flora of the Canary Islands and identifies opportunities for conservation work. In the longer term, with modern glasshouse facilities we hope to place greater focus on this unique and important island flora in our own plant collections here at Oxford.
This winter, Chris Thorogood accompanied local ecologist Matías on excursions across the islands of Lanzarote and La Graciosa to carry out vegetation surveys, and had the opportunity to take part in a community-led effort to ‘rewild’ brownfield sites around the city of Arrecife using plants propagated from natural populations around the island. This approach to conservation using native species creates green spaces that require little or no long-term intervention, and benefit the mental health and wellbeing of local communities.
In this guest post for OBGA, Matías shares his passion for plants and community gardening.
Rewilding Arrecife
Matías Hernandez Gonzalez
I am an ecologist based on the island of Lanzarote with a passion for the Canary island flora. I run a micro-reserve on the centre of the island, called Chaboco Natura, for the conservation of native and endemic plants. I also work for an environmental charity called Arrecife Natura (A.N.) that focuses on the conservation of native flora in Arrecife, the island’s capital city.
On the 20th of December 2020 I organised an event with the local community to plant native species in a plot owned by the city council, located in a neighbourhood overlooked by the extinct Maneje volcano. This plot has been devoid of vegetation for the last 30 years, and is the perfect place for establishing an urban community garden. The aims of the event were (1) to ‘rewild’ the barren urban plot with native species to create a green space, beneficial to people’s wellbeing and (2) engage the local community with the beauty and importance of Lanzarote’s local flora.
The participants comprised a group of residents, members of A.N., and Chris Thorogood from Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum. Together we created an urban restoration garden of native species including the iconic cactoid succulent ‘cardones’ (Euphorbia canariensis), the lavender ‘matorriscos’ (Lavandula pinnata) and ‘veroles’ (Kleinia neriifolia). Using native species has the benefit that once established, we can step back and leave the area to nature with minimal intervention such as irrigation (the fundamental principle behind rewilding). All of the plants were propagated from wild-sourced seed grown on my own roof terrace, and donated to the charity to be planted in public spaces around the city.
Not only have the community volunteers now enhanced their own neighbourhood with this new urban garden, they have also encouraged neighbours of other areas in the city to do the same in brownfield spaces. The neighbourhood of Argana Alta have accepted the challenge and they have scheduled a meeting this month with A.N. for advice and supply of native plants: #NeighborhoodsOfBiodiversity Finally, we are now working with the city council to alter the policy for removing wild plants from urban spaces. Together, we are planting the seeds of a greener future for the city of Arrecife.
University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum
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