The Eden Project?

The Eden Project Mission has been launched to "promote the understanding and responsible management of the vital relationship between plants, people and resources, leading towards a sustainable future for all." All the right buzzwords are in there. But what does it all actually mean? An "entire world under glass," the Eden Project is essentially a project aimed at showing us how we can take responsibility for a sustainable future through recognition of our reliance upon plants.

What Makes the Eden Project?

The Eden Project is humbly based in an abandoned china clay mine in Bodelva, Cornwall, in southwestern England. Eden consists of four massive domes (or biomes), covers 15 hectares, and contains plants from three of the world's climatic zones. The mine was the perfect choice for the Eden Project. The site was facing south, big enough to hold 35 football fields, sheltered, and readily accessible to all of southern England. The Bodelva mine was the "ideal site, a real beauty."

Eden's flagship is the Humid Tropics biome. At 100 meters across at its widest point and tall enough to house the Tower of London - all without the need for internal supports - the Humid Tropics biome houses plants from Amazonia, West Africa, Malaysia, and Oceania. Teak, mahogany, cocoa, rubber, bamboo, and vanilla are examples of plants from the tropics that have found utility in our lives; all are grown under this spectacular dome. Here also are visual displays that exemplify the balance between exploitation of the environment and responsible management of tropical resources.

The sheer scale of the domes comes courtesy of the light material from which they are made. Indeed, the tropical biome weighs less than the air inside it! The domes' skeletons are made of tubular steel formed into nine-meter hexagons and pentagons. The hollow frames are filled with translucent, triple-layered ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foil - a hundred times lighter than glass. ETFE can also be recycled at the end of the panels' expected life of 30 years. Importantly for the plants inside, ETFE is transparent to UV, yet is not degraded by sunlight. The Warm Temperate biome contains plants from Southern Africa, California, and Mediterranean areas. Many familiar plants are featured in this zone, including the very edible olive tree (the olives are edible, not the tree) and grapevines.

Hardier plants can be found in the Roofless biome. Across its 12 hectares, plants from Chile, the Himalayas, and Australasia are grown alongside native Cornish greenery.

The main biome areas are linked by a series of trails, which also bring together multimedia displays, art, and sculpture that tell the story of how critical plants are to our continued existence.

Is It Just a Big Garden, Then?

The Eden Project Team would not hear of it. This project is far more than simply a garden. Eden is a scientific institute with a serious and practical goal - to educate us on how we should be dealing with our environment. With stratified educational exhibits, the Eden Project is designed to meet the needs of all, from kindergarten to old age. Children, for example, can learn from the "teddy bear's picnic" what bears need to survive.

The key to Eden's mission is the promotion of understanding, including the understanding of how other cultures live. By helping children to see through others' eyes via stories and myths, project staff hope to offer kids an insight into how the relationship between plants and humankind has developed in other parts of the world. For educating adults, in September Eden is planning to introduce the Eden Diploma (through links with Duchy College and English Nature). Current research and international conservation initiatives are presented to show how we can sustain the rich variety of plant life on our planet.

Visitors can even personalize their visit. The numerous trails that connect the various exhibits are geared to themes to help bring home the conservation message. Music, sport, and food are just some of the themed trails that guests can follow.

The business world is also involved. Eden is working at building partnerships by stimulating discussion between science, education, conservation, and commerce.

Science is the basis on which the Eden Project is built. An increased understanding of the science of plants promotes an increased understanding of how much we rely on plants in our everyday lives. From the air that we breathe to food and medicine - and from clothing to construction - we need plants.

Reservations

Although created to have a positive environmental impact, the Eden Project surprisingly has some detractors among those concerned with the environment.

As a major attraction, Eden is expected to welcome many thousands of visitors every year, and the Green Party fears that the extra traffic could mean a local increase in pollution. Indeed, Cornwall is already a haven for tourists in the summer months; an added attraction such as Eden could make an existing problem worse. However, Eden insists that this is not the case and that the Greens need to conduct further research. Despite this, a bus service has been organized between Eden and the nearby town of St. Austell, thus allowing visitors to park their cars in the town and take the more environmentally friendly mode of transport to the Project, where parking for cars has been deliberately limited.

Many farmers have also been apprehensive about the opening of the Eden Project. With the U.K. suffering from its foot-and-mouth crisis, farmers were worried about Eden's opening and continue to express concern over the visitors who will travel across the land to reach the garden. Despite this, and with the virus still spreading across the U.K., constant communication between Eden and concerned parties has eased any tension that may once have existed.

Local, Family Feel

In another effort to meet the needs of the local Cornish residents, Eden has recruited for the project locally. Indeed, 80 percent of Eden's staff are from the area. Moreover, 40 percent of the employees are over 50 years of age. At a time when competition for employment in the U.K. is high, Eden has focused on taking advantage of the experience of more mature employees when dealing with the public, which, after all, is what the Eden Project is all about. The Project has not singled out a specific audience demographic, but aims to offer something for all. This was borne out through the working relationships of the staff as the site was created. Visitors to Eden during its development constantly expressed surprise at the family, team-oriented feel of the Project.

But again, "relationship" is what Eden is keen to promote, specifically humanity's relationship with plants. The project's primary aim is to reinforce the idea that we can all play a part in sustaining our planet's flora. An example is found in the Humid Tropics biome, where visitors are greeted by a 25-foot wooden ship's prow surrounded by cargo boxes. The intriguing props stimulate reflection on where such goods as bananas come from - how they get from the plantation to our plate - and the importance of plants at many stages in between.

Visit

Words can only go some way toward describing what the Eden Project is, and what it stands for. Its real message - how to sustain the splendor of our natural world - can best be absorbed by standing in one of Eden's massive biomes. To paraphrase the words of shaman Nicholas Noble Wolf (who has offered a blessing to the project): If we can do one less bad thing or one additional good thing on our planet's behalf after a visit, then the Eden Project has been a success.