Mexico City's Chapultepec Park was awarded the gold medal in the World Urban Parks organization's 2019 International Large Urban Parks Award.

And to celebrate, the city government said it will annex approximately 105 hectares to the fourth section of the park, known in Spanish as the Bosque de Chapultepec.

"It will once again become a space of recovery, environmental and cultural reclamation, as well as for the future of our country and, obviously, for our city," said Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.

The fourth section of the park is currently used by the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), and will be declared by the city government as an open recreational space.

"There isn't a higher honor I could receive as mayor than to feel the vibrations, love, and affection I feel for something so important to the city as the Bosque de Chapultepec," Sheinbaum added.

Later, she went on to say that, in addition to the award, she is excited about the future of the park, "which looks bright, since it includes both city and federal resources, such as the Los Pinos Cultural Complex."

She explained that the fourth section continues to grow, "and it's very important that an artist as recognized as Gabriel Orozco was chosen as the coordinator of cultural and environmental restoration, along with a team belonging to the Bosque de Chapultepec."

The Mayor said that the progress of the annexation of the new section of the park will be announced as the work moves forward.

"We will meet every 15 days with the Federal Secretariat of Culture, which is also part of this project. Various departments in the city government, and even the president, are keeping an eye on the progress, and we will soon be ready to make a presentation."

Regarding the recognition, she specified that the park was evaluated alongside urban parks all over the globe. "The natural wealth in the Bosque de Chapultepec represents the natural wealth of central Mexico, of our city, of what it has been and what it can be."

Milenio article transslated and edited by Mexico News Daily