| Alan's doing spadework for Botanics'
link to Cuba The Scotsman,
Scotland, 11 February 2005. A LONG-TERM link-up between the Royal
Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and the national botanic gardens of Cuba is set to
be cemented later this month. Alan Bennell, deputy director of public programmes
at the Botanic Garden, is flying to Havana to work with researchers at the gardens.
Although the island is more famous for its cigars and music, the botanic
gardens in the Cuban capital are among the finest in the world. Sprawling
across the centre of Havana, the gardens are more than ten times the size of Edinburgh's.
Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro helped to create the gardens after
he came to power, and within their walls is a fabulous collection of plant species
which Mr Bennell said could rival that of any on the eastern seaboard of the Americas.
This will be the third year Mr Bennell has been able to travel to Cuba
in an effort to build up a link with the gardens. During his trip he will
accompany researchers on a field trip to the Empresa Nacional de Flora y Fauna
nature reserve, and set up a large scale exhibition on the island's native fungi.
And he hopes in future to organise an exhibition in Edinburgh detailing
the work carried out in Cuba. "It really is an incredible sight and
the dedication and enthusiasm towards the subject is truly impressive," he
said. "The people there work incredibly hard at collecting and caring
for the thousands of different species found on Cuba." | 
