Lima
is the original base of operations for BRIT-Peru, an international branch of
BRIT in Peru.
The Peru
project manager, Renan Valega, manages and maintains all operations of the
project from this location. Valega also helps organize and oversees the
ornamental horticulture that is being conducted at a greenhouse at the Universidad
Agraria Nacional La Molina (La Molina). The Andes to Amazon Project has
established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with La Molina and have begun
to collaborate in investigations of native ornamental plants from the
Andes-Amazon region of Peru.
In 2006, Janovec and team began working with professors and students at La Molina to refurbish a hopp greenhouse that was originally built in 1960. Funding received from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Society supported the renovations of this location.
The greenhouse, called "El Viejo", is now used for ongoing horticultural, agricultural, and forestry research and development of native plants from the Andes-Amazon region of southeastern Peru. This location was equipped with a mist irrigation system that provides moisture to the plants collected. All plants are initially collected as cuttings or seeds by Janovec, Wells, Valega, and
the BRIT team. Presently, the
greenhouse is being used to quarantine hundreds of imported cuttings of Vanilla
planifolia orchids before they are shipped to the project's plantation sites in
Quince Mil and Puerto Maldonado for cultivation. Funds needed to support the required labor for maintenance of the greenhouse are raised through weekly agricultural and horticultural plant sales of native plants at La Molina.