Botanical Garden Management Plan is the topic of a series of lectures

The April edition of the lecture cycle Sharing Knowledge, an initiative of the Brasília Environmental Institute, featured the presentation of the work Review of the Management Plan of the Ecological Station of the Brasília Botanical Garden, with Priscila Rosa, director of Vegetation and Flora at the institution. During the exhibition, the biologist gave an overview of the history of the Botanical Garden, its formation, the vegetation survey until its inauguration, on March 8, 1985.

The creation of the Botanical Garden had been planned since 1957 – initially it would be located where the City Park is located today. However, the site did not have a water source for the flora collection. Then, in 1976, a commission to study a new location was set up, which identified the potential of the Cabeça de Veado Forest Station due to the abundance of water.

Following the lecture, the guest showed the first Management Plan for the Integral Protection Unit, from 2008, and the demand for its renewal due to data lags, such as flora, fauna and updating of the polygon. In March 2020, the review began based on the publications Methodological guide for preparing management plans for conservation units (CUs) in the Federal Districtauthored by the Brasília Environmental Institute, and federal UCsfrom the Chico Mendes Institute of Biodiversity.

After three years, the task force made up of employees from JBB and Brasília Ambiental concluded the work with the increase in socioeconomic data, biodiversity monitoring, environmental zoning, maps and signage, among the main restructured data.

One of the most impressive results revealed by the new study is that 33% of the flora of the entire Cerrado biome is located in the Federal District. “This is admirable, as our federation unit, with a small territory of 5,761 km² [equivalente a 0,3% da área do bioma] records 4,640 species of flora from a universe of 12,427 plants cataloged throughout the existing Cerrado area”, highlighted Priscila Rosa.

The Sharing Knowledge project is an action of the Quality of Life at Work of the Brasília Environmental Institute, created in 2019. The initiative was recognized in 2023, at the 1st Annual Quality of Life at Work Meeting of the Finance Department of the Federal District, with the award Qualivida 2023 seal, in the bronze category, in the local authority segment.

*With information from the Brasília Environmental Institute