By Frank Martin

TTC Service.- The botanical gardens of lush and sensual bright green vegetation can be more than places for tranquility.

They are also jewels for tourism.

In the central region of Barbados, for example, the Hunte’s Gardens are capable of attracting tourists, even if it means leaving for some busy hours other entertainment.

Many consider the place as a masterpiece of nature and people.

Its trails are filled not only with bright green vegetation, but also with a fauna of red and blue and yellow colors, while still being wild.

Hunte’s Gardens is only two acres length and is one of the most visited attractions in Barbados.

It emerged when a horticulturist named Hunte began to take care of his backyard, which was part of a missing and remote sugar plantation.

When he opened it in 2007 as a Hunte business, he could show the largest collection of tropical plants in the Caribbean.

He managed to carve on nature a jewel of tourism.

One good concept is attract tourists and preserve nature.

The moral is not only the income that the gardener has been able to obtain. He also showed how tourism, far from damaging nature, can preserve it.

In times of climate change and dangers of the so-called mass tourism that kind of places are crucial.

The Caribbean has an enviable ecological abundance. And lots of underutilized garden space.

Specialists say that Barbados, Martinique, San Vicente, Santo Domingo and Haiti have remnants of remote forests that today could be converted into excellent Botanical Gardens.

Havana, in Cuba, has its example in this regard.

The National Botanical Garden of Cuba is dedicated to tropical plant diversity that has already been lost in other parts of the island.

It has an area of about 600 hectares and about 4,000 plant species exposed.

In the Caribbean, homage is paid to indigenous peoples and their descendants, when one of these gardens is founded.

The Indians and later the slaves brought from Africa were the first to design those gardens.

These places of great peace have been for centuries ecosystems that cooperated in silence in restore the islands after serious natural disasters.

These unknown people acted as botanists and gardeners and introduced food crops and medicines in the Caribbean.

They were pioneers in healing climatic wounds.

There are very renowned Gardens around the world.

Are examples of what botanical and natural gardens can do.

Are spectacular places as like Sissinghurst Castle Garden and Stourhead in England, Versailles, Giverny, Villandry, Rivau in France, Keukenhof in the Netherlands and Villa d’Este and Villa Lante in Italy,
The Alhambra in Spain, Longwood Gardens and Filoli in the United States, the magnificent Taj Mahal in India and the Ryoan-ji in Japan are extraordinary and attractive.