Conference on organic gardens and biodiversity. Environmental education

It’s been a while since we brought news about events and activities of urban agriculture, but today we have learned about a conference on environmental education and agroecology that deserve maximum dissemination. These are the conferences on organic gardens and biodiversity that will be held in Madrid during the next week (from March 3 to 11, 2018).

WHERE ARE THE CONFERENCES ON ORGANIC ORCHARDS AND BIODIVERSITY HELD?

In the Huerto del Retiro, in the heart of the city, and in the El Cuadrón Environmental Education Center, in the northern mountains of Madrid, next to the Garganta de los Montes municipality.

CEIA The Garden of Retiro

We have already talked about this place in many other Agrohuerto entries. In this Environmental Education Center in Madrid there are free environmental education activities practically every week of the year.

Workshops on urban gardens, exhibitions and conferences for children and families, gardening or ornithology courses and other events, such as guided tours or botanical trails, are some of the activities that are organized every month at the Information and Environmental Education Center ‘ The Garden of the Retiro’.

There, among other things, the awards ceremony and the party for the First Sustainable School Gardens contest in Madrid were held, which we had the pleasure of attending last spring.

CEA El Cuadrón

This environmental education center is located in the middle of a natural ecosystem, in the Sierra de Madrid. It is an environment with a very characteristic landscape, surrounded by cattle trails, medieval bridges and a unique natural environment with traditional or native varieties of the area.

Exhibitions, conferences and environmental and sociocultural education activities are organized at CEA El Cuadrón. It also has a library with resources for visitors, where you can find, among other things, its own publications on ecological tourism and natural heritage.

Hopefully more and more town halls are encouraged to launch initiatives and places like these, where we urbanites can learn to relate to nature and take care of our environment by making cities cleaner and more sustainable.

From Agrohuerto we want to do our bit to spread this type of activity and that is why today we will talk about the next conference on organic gardens and biodiversity.

WHAT ACTIVITIES WILL THERE BE IN THE BIODIVERSITY DAYS?

These sessions on organic gardens and biodiversity will last for just over a week, with many different activities.

Workshops and Exhibitions

On Saturday March 3 in the morning there will be the exhibition and workshop for children «Suddenly a seed», and for the elderly there will also be a workshop on vermiculture (which is the cultivation of worms to make vermicompost, an ecological fertilizer).

On Tuesday, March 6, in the afternoon, they have organized a workshop on how to obtain seeds and seedlings so that they do not have to buy them.

The last day of the conference on organic gardens and biodiversity, Sunday March 11, will be the Seed Festival, and has been organized, among other things, the family workshop «The magic pea.»

seed exchange

On Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 11th of March there will be a meeting between professional producers, amateur gardeners and all those people interested in the recovery of species and traditional varieties, who will be able to exchange their seeds.

Conferences, debates and presentation of projects

Every day during these Conferences on organic gardens there will be presentations and debates with various experts, professionals and amateurs of agroecology, who will deal with topics such as the importance of conserving biodiversity, or the way forward to recover local variety vegetables and fruit trees.

Several projects and experiences already underway for the recovery of local varieties of fruit trees, wild edible flowers and other traditional varieties that improve the agrosystem and biodiversity will also be announced.

Other activities in the conference on organic gardens

A market for agro-ecological products (on Sunday, March 11 throughout the morning), live music and on Thursday, March 8, the Cooking Show «Cooking with seeds», led by a well-known bio-cooking school.

WHO ORGANIZES THESE BIODIVERSITY CONFERENCES AND HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

The Center for Information and Environmental Education ‘El Huerto del Retiro’ and the Center for Environmental Education ‘El Cuadrón’, which we talked about earlier, have collaborated in the organisation. But in addition, as you can see in the program, many associations, companies, researchers and agroecological farmers from Madrid and its surroundings participate.

These workshops on orchards are free and anyone who wishes can participate. The only requirement is to register in advance.

• Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 March

RedSembrando Campo Through Days, which will take place at CEA El Cuadrón.

Registration on the phone 91 869 42 79

• Tuesday 6 to Sunday 11 March

On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday the sessions will be held in the Huerto del Retiro.

Registration on the phone 91 530 00 41

If you didn’t know these environmental education centers, I hope you liked them as much as I did and that you help us spread this news about the Biodiversity Conference.