Three days of botanical exchange and conservation discussions at Santa Lucía!

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting a three-day workshop at our reserve, organized by our friends Tom Wells and Alex Monro from Kew Gardens. More than 20 botanists from Ecuador and other countries came together to discuss the current status of Ecuadorian plant collections, Red Lists, and opportunities to conserve the country's extraordinarily diverse flora.

Maira Martínez from Bolivia introduced the concept of Important Plant Areas (IPAs) and shared her country's successful experience in identifying and establishing them. During several sessions, workshop participants explored the possibilities and implications of introducing this approach in Ecuador and discussed how it might contribute to plant conservation efforts.

All participants left Santa Lucía with fresh inspiration from the stimulating discussions, the positive spirit of the workshop, and, hopefully, the beauty and extraordinary diversity of plant life in our reserve.

We are very grateful to Tom and Alex for organizing this valuable workshop and to all the participants for visiting Santa Lucía and sharing their knowledge and experience with us.

We hope to stay in touch and build on these connections to advance our own research on cloud forest botany and further strengthen our conservation efforts!