i-Tree in Chapultepec
Beyond Trees and US Forest Service International Programs present
NEW INFORMATION FROM THE OLDEST URBAN FOREST OF MEXICO CITY: USING i-TREE TO UNDERSTAND AND PROMOTE ITS BENEFITS
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Meeting ID: 848 9665 6078
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Spanish – English interpretation provided.
Before the Spaniards arrived in Meso America, in the region now known as Mexico, arboriculture had already begun. Conquistadors and friars left behind chronicles of the gardens and tree groves the emperors and nobility of the main indigenous cultures had tended. The main information, however, about the arboricultural activities came from the Mexicas or Aztecs. The gardens of Iztapalapa, Tezcotzinco, and Oaxtepec were examples of those places the nobility used to have. In addition to its beauty. Bosque de Chapultepec, or Chapultepec Forest, was the source of potable water for the Aztec capital, and its role as a peri-urban forest was strategic for centuries for Mexico City.
From the latter part of the 16th up to the middle of the 19th century, Chapultepec Forest was a place of recreation for the inhabitants of Mexico City. It was not, however, considered an urban park because it was “far away from the city.” The modernization of means of transportation in the last party of the 19th century, made easier the visit to Chapultepec Forest for the inhabitants of Mexico City. In addition the large enough expansion of the city eventually ended up surrounding the park.
For the first time in seven centuries, the conditions and characteristics of the whole tree cover of Chapultepec Forest will be defined. Additionally, the environmental services and the economic value will be derived thanks to the pioneer use of the i-Tree Eco version adapted to Mexico. This new information will provide basic data to support the much-needed modern management Chapultepec requires.
Beyond Trees Network and the US Forest Service International Programs will host a meeting with Dr. Hector Benavides-Meza with the National Institute of Forest, Agriculture and Livestock Research of Mexico (INIFAP). He will discuss his research project, which will provide precise and complete information about the tree stands and conditions of the areas of Chapultepec, as well as the environmental services and the economic value derived from this huge tree cover.
Spanish-English interpretation will be provided. This will be recorded.
About the Presenter: HECTOR MARIO BENAVIDES-MEZA
Dr. HECTOR MARIO BENAVIDES-MEZA is a biologist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (graduated in 1980) and has M. Sc. in botany from Colegio de Postgraduados (1987). He completed his Ph D. from Cornell University (Department of Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture) in 2000. Hector has been a researcher at the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research of Mexico (INIFAP) since 1981 and has been in charge of different urban forestry research projects since 1987. He had also technical-administrative responsibilities as Head of Experimental Stations and Director of the Forestry Research Center at INIFAP. Nowadays, Hector is the Head Researcher in Urban Forestry at INIFAP as well as Associate Professor of urban forestry at the School of Sciences at the National Autonomous University.
He developed research and technical assistance projects in the most important green urban spaces of Mexico City (Chapultepec, San Juan de Aragón, Tlalpan and Alameda Central), as well as in other parts of the city. Nowadays he is working—with funding from the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico—to finish the diagnosis of the tree cover of Chapultepec, and the quantification and the economic value of the environmental services provided by the trees of Chapultepec by using i-Tree, which was integrated into the country a couple of years ago. Hector is an alumnus of the Forest Service’s 2017 International Seminar on Urban Forestry and Community Engagement.
To Connect:
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Meeting ID: 848 9665 6078
Passcode: 098494
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Meeting ID: 848 9665 6078
Passcode: 098494
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