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The International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH) members consist of thousands of growers of flowers and ornamental plants around the world who are together united by one essential goal – promoting the place of plants in people’s lives.
AIPH is responsible for approving the world’s most exceptional horticultural expos creating long lasting green legacies in cities across the globe.
AIPH Blooming Economies & Cities to Inspire The World 2.0. Up-to-date statistics from recent Expos hosted in Asia and Europe.
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The AIPH International Grower of the Year Awards celebrate the best of the best in ornamental horticulture
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The report contains insights on production and consumption of the floriculture industry in Thailand, imports and exports, and business opportunities
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Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Image by Pedro Martins
Initiative: Parque do Barrocal – Nature within the City of Castelo Branco
City: Castelo Branco
Country: Portugal
Categories: Biodiversity, Health & Wellbeing
2024 Awards: Entrant
The Parque de Barrocal belongs to Castelo Branco, but it belongs to all of us. To everyone today, and to everyone who will come after. Therefore, let’s respect and cherish it, letting nature continue its regenerative path, which we all want and can now follow closely.
The Park was designed to promote Barrocal as a museum of nature, alive, dynamic, interactive, educational and entertaining. To make known the characteristics of the Albicastrense landscape and biodiversity and its genesis and evolution, the relationship with the geological landscape of the region and beyond. To highlight existing resources, ecosystems and their interrelationships, the importance of preserving natural resources and biodiversity for a healthier, balanced and harmonious future. It was designed to warmly welcome visitors, invite them to visit and experience the Barrocal in its most diverse aspects, doing so in a comfortable and respectful way of present values. To make it a space for strolling and contemplation, for socialising and sharing experiences and knowledge. With a characteristic granite landscape made of rocks generated deep within the Earth, but shaped and exposed by hundreds of millions of years of tectonic movements and climatic periods, Barrocal is a refreshing oasis of natural history. Barrocal is part of and an example of the natural and cultural richness of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) territory in which it is located. Construction of Barrocal Park began in 2018, being opened to the public in 2020, and it is expected that in 2025 it will be visited by 25,000 people.
The Barrocal Natural Park is adjacent to the urban area of Castelo Branco. It is characterised by its important granite formations that represent the granite landscape with a ruinous appearance. With a total area of approximately 40 ha, it constitutes a particular landscape unit, marked by a rugged topography due to its geological characteristics, having remained very preserved until today. Barrocal is characterised by a rugged relief that reaches around 426m in altitude, varying around 30m in relation to the flatter areas of Castelo Branco. This hill is based on a granite dome, with symmetrical anticlinal structures, but the slopes have a steeper slope towards the southeast. In parallel to geological resources, there are also other important natural values identified, namely autochthonous vegetation, low-sized tree patches – of cerquinho oak (Quercus faginea) and black oak (Quercus pyrenaica), most of the time associated with rockroses and brooms, and to other shrub and herbaceous formations with floristic interest. As a whole, they constitute important supports for an avifauna dominated by passerines and smaller or larger mammals.
The existing flora species are autochthonous. Autochthonous species are better adapted than exotic species to climatic conditions and soil characteristics, therefore being more resistant to drought and other climate peculiarities. Indigenous forests play an important role in regulating and improving the climate, as well as sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, contributing to the reduction of the greenhouse effect.
The park corresponds to a fascinating geological landscape with an unexpected biodiversity that follows the seasons of the year, just a stone’s throw from the urban centre. Parque do Barrocal has seven viewpoints, several geological formations of interest, walkways and nature trails, a children’s playground, an observatory of birds, among many other natural attractions.
The project was submitted to public discussion and was built by a multidisciplinary team of architects, engineers, biologists and archaeologists. It involved technicians from the city council in the environmental area and the city’s schools.
