Local Knowledge and Natural Heritage Conservation Flourish at the Cochrane Hospital with the Creation of the First Ethnobotanical Garden

This open space, co-created by Naturaleza Pública—winner of the 2024 FMA Fund—and various community actors, invites people to reconnect with native flora, highlighting its therapeutic and biocultural value. The initiative includes several thematic gardens: one medicinal, another sensory for children with autism, and a third for hospitalized patients.

In a remote corner of southern Patagonia, a space of encounter between ancestral medicine, nature, and the community has emerged. It is the first ethnobotanical garden, recently inaugurated in the inner courtyards of the Cochrane Hospital. The initiative is led by Naturaleza Pública, a project awarded the 2024 Competitive Fund by Fundación Mar Adentro.

Conceived as a living museography, the garden brings together various species of native flora with medicinal properties, integrating botanical, cultural, and territorial knowledge through participatory processes and collective creation. Each plant is accompanied by information that allows visitors to learn about its traditional names, therapeutic uses, and relevance for the conservation of local biodiversity.

The project was developed collaboratively, with active participation from Mapuche communities, particularly highlighting the knowledge of women who have inherited ancestral wisdom through generations. Collaborators included the Indigenous Associations of Manque and Newenche, the Union of Senior Clubs, the Municipal Environmental Committee, and the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF), weaving a diverse and committed territorial network.

“Our goal is to reconnect people with nature, especially in a context like Patagonia, where there is a profound lack of knowledge about local species,” said María Jesús May, member of the Naturaleza Pública team.

Driven by the need to highlight the flora of the Patagonian steppe—a unique ecosystem with less than 2% representation in protected areas—and to promote well-being through a comprehensive approach linking health, culture, and the environment, the project leaders decided to create a shared space for communities in remote areas. These communities, they explain, face significant gaps in health, education, and cultural access.

To achieve this, a partnership was established with the Cochrane Hospital, which serves nearly 50,000 people each year—almost half of the total population of the Aysén Region—including residents from other parts of Patagonia. There, they transformed neglected courtyards into therapeutic, educational, and conservation spaces.

Each courtyard was designed with a specific purpose: a medicinal garden near the pharmacy; a sensory garden for children and adolescents with autism; and another for hospitalized patients, among others. Thanks to funding from Fundación Mar Adentro, an endemic room was also created—conceived as a refuge for biodiversity and a space for the transmission of knowledge and intergenerational exchange. “Elders connected with youth, traditional plant names were recovered, and community-driven conservation and observation initiatives were launched,” May explained.

Gianna Salamanca, a researcher associated with the project, emphasized the garden’s value as a space for conservation-based creation: “This garden represents an opportunity—a laboratory of experimentation and knowledge that enables dialogue between people and our way of relating to these ecosystems,” she noted in a video by Naturaleza Pública.

The garden also gave rise to a visual archive featuring botanical illustrations by Laura Van Kilsdonk, microscopic photography by Katy N. Newlin, and informative panels developed with local communities. In addition, herbal workshops were held, and a booklet of community medicinal recipes was produced in recognition of ancestral knowledge.

Bernardita Pérez, arts and partnerships project coordinator at Fundación Mar Adentro, who accompanied the initiative from its early stages, highlighted its collective and connecting spirit: “This garden seeks to be a space for intergenerational and territorial gathering—an invitation to bring together people of different ages, knowledge systems, and communities around the care and understanding of nature, fostering meaningful and lasting bonds,” she said.

The garden is currently open to the public and will soon offer regular activities, guided tours, and educational workshops. Naturaleza Pública continues to raise funds to expand the project, with plans to develop a new therapeutic garden focused on children and adolescents with special needs (NANEAS). Those who wish to support the initiative can do so through the project’s social media or official website.