WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:11.096 --> 00:00:13.830 The Botanical Garden, where we’re currently standing, has   00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:19.950 a total area of 5 hectares and 2,150 square metres of greenhouse space. 00:00:24.615 --> 00:00:31.520 The Botanical Garden cultivates 6,091 species of plant and cultivars.  00:00:31.520 --> 00:00:35.420 It’s home to a large number of rare plants. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:45.480 The great thing about the guided tours here in the Botanical Garden is that we can talk to visitors about how  00:00:45.480 --> 00:00:50.790 beautiful the plants are and then, during the tours, give them   00:00:50.790 --> 00:00:56.670 information on them. Visitors show a great deal of interest because they also see   00:00:56.670 --> 00:01:00.330 problems in their own gardens, for example, plants drying out or no  00:01:00.330 --> 00:01:05.640 longer looking attractive – and that’s where we can exchange experiences, of course. Generally speaking,   00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:13.470 there’s certainly a great need to know more about issues like climate change. Indeed, there are lots of 00:01:13.470 --> 00:01:17.430 plants which tie in with the issue of sustainability 00:01:22.010 --> 00:01:28.850 We’re now in a specific habitat, the Mediterranean area, and here we have 00:01:28.850 --> 00:01:34.580 a strawberry tree which, until 2017, was always transferred to the orangery for the winter, 00:01:34.580 --> 00:01:40.430 every year, but four years ago we planted it here because the winters now are simply 00:01:40.430 --> 00:01:43.695 milder, and it’s thriving really well out here. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.432 Here, as far as our Alpine garden is concerned, 00:01:53.432 --> 00:01:58.490 we don’t actually have enough snow, and because the snow cover  00:01:58.490 --> 00:02:04.550 protects the plants during a hard frost, when there’s no snow, the cold will 00:02:04.550 --> 00:02:08.840 kill the plants – which is what in fact happens in the Alps, when there’s no protective  00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:13.010 snow cover. Then a lot of plants die because they can’t survive the winter cold. 00:02:16.701 --> 00:02:20.700 The Botanical Garden contributes to sustainability at Münster University due to   00:02:20.700 --> 00:02:25.650 its location in the centre of the city. For one thing, it constitutes a recreational area 00:02:25.650 --> 00:02:30.420 very close by – in other words, you don’t need to be very mobile if you want to 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:35.280 visit this place here, and the Botanical Garden makes an enormous contribution  00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:40.320 of course to stabilising the urban microclimate. Especially where there are sealed areas,  00:02:40.320 --> 00:02:44.490 there is more warmth generated, and that remains overnight, of course.   00:02:44.490 --> 00:02:49.350 That of course leads to increased evaporation and transpiration of the 00:02:49.350 --> 00:02:53.610 water in the plants in the city centre, and the Botanical Garden with its green spaces 00:02:53.610 --> 00:02:56.910 helps of course to cool areas down and, in particular, also to  00:02:56.910 --> 00:03:00.780 supply more moisture in the air through the transpiration in the plants. 00:03:04.570 --> 00:03:08.830 Because the Botanical Garden has a very wide range of plant species, we provide  00:03:08.830 --> 00:03:13.870 an awful lot of habitats for animals and of course sources of food, too,   00:03:13.870 --> 00:03:19.690 for animals – which means of course that the number of vertebrates and insects is much higher 00:03:19.690 --> 00:03:27.010 than in the sealed areas in the city centre. Our aim at any rate is to 00:03:27.010 --> 00:03:32.170 embed education relating to sustainable development more strongly in the Botanical Garden’s educational programme 00:03:32.170 --> 00:03:38.710 both in the guided tours and also in workshops and discussions. Something 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:42.580 that’s especially important for us at the Botanical Garden is also to raise our visitors’ awareness of environmental 00:03:42.580 --> 00:03:48.610 issues – and perhaps too of the range of species in their own gardens – 00:03:48.610 --> 00:03:53.650 and, in this way, create habitats for animals and plants.