OUR MISSION: To preserve the natural and cultural heritage of El Charco del Ingenio, and maintain a botanical garden dedicated to the conservation and study of regional flora and ecosystems, with a primary focus on environmental education.
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.
-- Arundhati Roy
In order to join the efforts of society as a whole and following the guidelines of the federal Ministry of Health, El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden and Protected Natural Area of San Miguel de Allende, has had to temporarily close its doors to all visitors and users, including members of the Garden. Since the recent official declaration of the pandemic’s third phase in Mexico, and the emphatic official recommendation to suspend activities considered non-essential, El Charco has made this unprecedented decision in order to help reduce mobility in public spaces.
A Our staff remain in the Garden day and night, with mainly surveillance rolls to protect the reserve, its collections and facilities, a greater and continuous need due to the current dry, fire season. We kindly ask users, members and visitors of the Botanical Garden to refrain from entering the reserve through the fences as long as this restriction is in force.
It is now weeks, and perhaps it will be months, of a difficult emotional and economic situation at both planetary and local levels. The Botanical Garden will have to carry its part, while doing without its ordinary incomes and maintaining, as it does, all of its staff’s salary. In contrast and due to the low human presence, El Charco is experiencing an exuberance of wildlife that we had not previously registered: nesting and abundance of birds, mammals reappearing throughout the reserve and an activated ecosystem strengthening day by day.
And beyond El Charco, perhaps this is a great opportunity to rethink the model of uneven and predatory development that has governed San Miguel de Allende in recent years, finding more just and respectful paths for the community and nature.
--It seems birds are singing more now-- we point out to Dr. Leopoldo Estrada, one of the founders and makers of El Charco since its creation.
--And not only that-- he replies amazed --but now they are singing differently and at different times than before...
--But we also have more time to listen to them…
Dialogues of this type are common these days everywhere. In San Miguel as well. It seems that the new urban silence caused by this strange pause to which we are suddenly forced has been conducive to birds’ mobility, mating and singing. Suddenly the growing noises of our heritage city have ceased for them. Such resounding permanent mixture of traffic’s roar, bells, pounding rockets launched at popular celebrations and private parties, uproaring music coming from wedding halls and rooftop bars, multiplied mariachis trumpets and the general intense hubbub emitted by incessant tourist crowds... Suddenly everything stopped, was silenced. And the birds recovered the airy public space from which they had been gradually expelled over the years (Does anyone still remember the blackbirds’ profusion on the Jardin`s laurel trees at sunset?). Today birds live in San Miguel an exceptional grace period... but it will be for a short time. The longed “normality” is approaching and with it the urban limitless frenzy will return.
--Do we really want to return to that "normality"...?
Since its launch within the United Nations Organization on April 22, 1970, this world celebration for the preservation of nature has been adding wills and actions throughout half a century. The undeniable and devastating reality of climate change, the widespread pollution of lands and seas, and the galloping extinction of species and ecosystems around the planet offer us, have endowed Earth Day with increasing relevance. Relevance that is enhanced today, as the human invasion of wild species’ habitats is increasingly evident as a substantial cause of the series of epidemics arosen in our century, such as the one that we are currently suffering worldwide. As Hindu activist Vandana Shiva points out: "The illusion of the earth and its beings as raw materials to be exploited for profit is creating a world connected through disease."
El Charco del Ingenio has joined the international Earth Day agenda, offering a video about the unexpected pause, climate change and its relationship with diseases, food governance, ecosystem services and the new way of thinking about well being. Help us to share it!
Based on an annulment plaint by local Citizen Observatory of Sanmiguelenses, a State Court determined that the Municipal ruling program (PMDUOET in Spanish) --recently approved by the City Council— is compelled to maintain the territorial integrity of El Charco del Ingenio Ecological Preservation Zone, according to the Declaration that gave rise to it in 2006. The preserve boundaries were unlawfuly modified in 2017, at the initiative of Mayor Ricardo Villarreal, cutting off some sections to give to real estate businesses. Such modification was already in the final project of the PMDUOET. However, the Court’s timely resolution, which grants a definitive suspension while the main trial is taking place, has ruled out the inclusion of the unfortunate previous City Council’s agreement in the ruling Program.
We welcome the annulment plaint by the Citizen Observatory, for it reflects the growing recognition of the heritage value of the Charco del Ingenio by local citizen’s groups. But above all we welcome the Court’s clear and forceful statement, as it indicates a new awareness by the judges about the importance of natural areas and environmental services they provide to the population.
Euphorbia radians is the scientific name for the Ground Flower. This species shares the characteristic of succulence with other plants, which have evolved to survive climates where water is scarce. Walking along the paths of El Charco, this strange seasonal inflorescence appears, storing the water in a row of sausage-shaped roots. Amazing!
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Every Tuesday of the month of May at 12 noon, we connect via Facebook with CONABIO to listen to specialists on different topics related to nature, conservation and sustainability.