Jardín Botánico Lancetilla
Jardín Botánico Lancetilla is a botanical garden on the Caribbean coast , in northern Honduras , about seven kilometers southeast of the village of Tela . It is about 1681 hectares , of which 1261 hectares are a nature reserve, 350 hectares are plantations and 70 hectares are an arboretum . The collection includes around 1500 species with a focus on tropical crops.
history
In 1925, Wilson Popenoe received an order from the management of the United Fruit Company to set up a research and testing station for tropical crops in collaboration with the Tela Railway Company, located in northern Honduras. It was the time of exploration for new economic plant species, and Dr. Popenoe, a pioneer in this field, has been traveling to all tropical latitudes since the beginning of his professional career in order to find useful plants that could be of interest for economic use in the future. As the first director in Lancetilla, he began to have well-known crops brought from all tropical latitudes to northern Honduras on a large scale. That this happened from an economic point of view is shown by the construction of up to five hectares of plantations , such as mangosteen ( Garcinia mangostana ), which was considered the largest outside of Asia until the 1990s . Large numbers of rubber trees ( Hevea brasiliensis ) were also planted from Brazil and fungus-resistant varieties were bred. These were distributed throughout Central America and played a very important role as a rubber supplier for the United States of America during World War II .
In these first years of Lancetilla, in addition to the collection of vegetative material, the improvement of the genetic resources of the African oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis ) played a major role. The vegetative material genetically improved in Lancetilla was spread from Central America to Colombia . Hence it can be said that the cradle of the great oil palm plantations in the New World is to be found in Lancetilla. The same applies to Asian fruits such as lychee and rambutan , which were introduced into Latin America via Lancetilla.
Other of these crops were cinchona bark trees ( Cinchona ledgeriana ), which were needed for the manufacture of medicines for the treatment of malaria . In the 1940s and 1950s in particular, cultivation was promoted throughout Central America, especially in Guatemala and Honduras. This is unquestionably related to the military conflicts in Southeast Asia.
In addition to useful plants, experiments were also carried out with tropical tree species. The potential of tropical timber was recognized early on, so that the first reforestation projects with mahogany ( Swietenia macrophylla ) and teak ( Tectonia grandis ) were carried out as early as the 1930s . Even today there are a few hectares of these plots in the Botanical Garden, which are used for the extraction of seed material.
The Lancetilla research center also provided the basis for exploring the flora of the coastal rainforests of Honduras, which at that time still existed in large quantities . Expeditions were started from here, which are to be regarded as the basis for the first works on the flora of Central America. Some evidence of these historical collections can still be found in the Herbarium of the Botanical Gardens of Lancetilla.
In addition to tropical crops, Lancetilla also experimented in other areas. In the 1930s, a center for poisonous snake research was set up together with Harvard University . As part of a cooperation agreement between Harvard University and the United Fruit Company , snake poisons were obtained, which were sent to the USA to produce antisera . This was for the expanding during this period in great measure in Central America banana producers very significant because it came more and more frequently in the banana plantations to poisoning of the workers by snake bites.
In the 1940s, Lancetilla gained great importance beyond the borders of Honduras in research on banana pests and diseases. The strong expansion of monocultures had the consequence that the banana varieties used became more and more susceptible to diseases. The breeding of resistant variants was necessary. The varieties improved in Lancetilla were distributed under the influence of the United Fruit Company.
This was also the high point of Lancetilla, where hundreds of thousands of plants were produced and distributed across Latin America. On the other hand, the plant collection at that time, today it would be called a gene bank, grew steadily and it was referred to as one of the most important tropical useful plant collections at that time.
From 1960, Lancetilla lost its importance for the United Fruit Company. Internal unrest in Honduras made the working conditions of the transnational corporations more difficult, as in several Central American countries, and after the breakdown of the logistical infrastructure of the Tela Railway Company, which as a subsidiary had supported the research center in the immediate vicinity, the American banana producer withdrew from the Research Center back. In the early 1970s, the research center entered an uncertain and sad phase.
Illegal farmers and agricultural workers seized the opportunity and occupied the area. They began to clear the plantations and tried to take possession of the area. During this time, however, the historical collections were also looted. Hundreds of varieties of coffee, cocoa, mango and also citrus plants were lost. According to today's judgment, an indescribable treasure trove of biodiversity and natural gene pool. The results of the scientific work have been pillaged and dumped into the Lancetilla River and are believed to be lost forever.
In 1978 the area that is now part of the botanical garden and research station was officially handed over to the Honduran state, which slowly regained control of the situation. It was decided to subordinate the botanical garden to the national forest authority 'AFE-CODEFOR', which at least clarified the unclear situation of the area. This made it possible to build on the research tradition and preserve the botanical garden. Even if from a strictly forestry point of view, the research in Lancetilla was pushed ahead with the takeover of Lancetilla by the current administration in 1992 (the National Forest School, ESNACIFOR).
Since the end of the 1990s, attempts have been made to admit the importance of a botanical garden to Lancetilla in the area of ex-situ protection of endangered plant species in Honduras, considering the importance of research and training in the forest sector in Lancetilla, but also building on the past. Legally, Lancetilla has the national mandate to collect the flora of Honduras and plays an important role in that country. However, there is no question that some efforts will still be needed to do justice to this.
Web links
Coordinates: 15 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ N , 87 ° 25 ′ 0 ″ W.