Institution
The Regional Law n. 31 of 27 March 2000 established the “Giardini Botanici Hanbury” Regional Protected Area including an area within which the state-owned complex falls, given in perpetual free concession to the University of Genoa with Decree of the Ministry of Finance n. 74907 of 14 April 1999, other private and public properties, as well as a facing stretch of sea.
The aims of the Protected Area, referred to by the L.R. 31/2000 are:
- protect, promote and enhance the Gardens as an environmental, landscape and scientific heritage of extraordinary importance, integrating, according to principles of understanding and collaboration, the work carried out by the University of Genoa in its capacity as concessionaire of the real estate complex, and the the action of the state bodies responsible for the protection of cultural heritage;
- favour, promote and develop research activities and the use of the Gardens for scientific, cultural, social and educational purposes;;
- conserve regional endemic species, with particular reference to those subject to risk of extinction, to the endemics of the southern Ligurian Alps sector, to the endemics of the basal plane (halophytes, Mediterranean evergreen sclerophytes, thermophilic orchids);
- activate connection and address functions for the botanical gardens connected to the regional parks;
- activate consultancy and training functions in the botanical field for operators of protected areas;
- protect the stretch of sea facing the Hanbury Botanical Gardens from a biological and geological point of view, promoting the conservation of the species, ecosystems and mineral formations present;
- favour, promote and develop research activities and the use of the stretch of sea facing the Hanbury Botanical Gardens for scientific, cultural, social, educational and recreational purposes, also taking into account the activities traditionally carried out in the area.
The same L.R. entrusts the management of the PA to the University of Genoa, on the basis of a specific agreement. This agreement, signed on 1 August 2001 by the representatives of the Liguria Region and of the University (at the time the President Sandro Biasotti and the Rector Sandro Pontremoli) has a renewable thirty-year duration, and specifies that the University, for management, makes use of its own University Center "Hanbury Botanical Gardens".
Composition
The AP is also responsible for the management of:
- Capo Mortola Marine Protection Area
- Special Land Conservation Areas (IT1316118 Capo Mortola)
- Special Marine Conservation Areas (IT1316175 Capo Mortola Seabed - San Gaetano)
Area Protetta GBH
How it works
The Regional Protected Area is assigned to the Management Body, i.e. the University, which avails itself of a Protected Area Coordination Committee whose members are: the rector of the University with the function of president, the president of the Province, the mayor of Ventimiglia, the Superintendent of Environmental and Architectural Heritage of Liguria, the Superintendent of Archaeological Heritage of Liguria, the General Director of the Tourist Promotion Company "Riviera dei Fiori", the Director of the Hanbury Botanical Gardens. Each of the members is granted the right to be represented by their own delegate.
The Coordination Committee performs consultative and proactive functions on issues relating to the Protected Area, as well as coordination functions between the Bodies and Administrations of which it is composed; in particular, the Committee studies and proposes hypotheses for improving visitor accessibility, the general usability of the Gardens, and their promotion at a national and European level.
Drafting of the SAC Management Plans
Drafting of the AP Plan including ATM in the Coordination Committee meetings in 2009, 2011 and 2024