A NEW educational hub dedicated to championing the cause of nature has opened at a tourist attraction in Cornwall.

The Centre for Nature Futures at the Lost Gardens of Heligan, near Mevagissey, was launched in front of an invited audience of educationalists and business people.

Speeches were given by Heligan co-founder Sir Tim Smit, Heligan chief executive David Harland, head of Nature Futures Dan Ryan and Mary Colwell, a conservationist and naturalist who has led a campaign to introduce a natural history GCSE to the national curriculum

The centre, a multi-purpose events and office space, sits alongside a traditional orchard and a wetland wilderness shaped by reintroduced beavers.

Sir Tim Smit said: “Surrounded by some of the people we admire most in all the world, the Heligan team opened the doors to launch the Centre for Nature Futures, which is dedicated to making the natural world visible to all.

“There was passion, anger, curiosity and love, but most of all commitment to not allow natural history to be seen as a vanilla subject by the grey beards of Whitehall. From the roiling mass of bright-eyed people came a murmur that grew to a roar. We shall be stewards, guardians, guides and teachers. Nurturers, protectors and champions for nature. And we shall be loud until everybody hears.

“To love nature is to love ourselves and to understand nature is to understand what it is to be human.”

To celebrate the launch of the centre, an exhibition of photography by marine and natural history photography students from Falmouth University called “The Future of Life?” will be on display in the building until July.

The doors also opened on the Plant Factory, a converted shipping container created by Plymouth University to grow plants in vertical hydroponic systems, bringing a vision for the future of horticulture to the historic gardens.