A week’s look at local conservation on the ground in Columbia (photo essay)
Megan Hill, Rare’s Senior Director, Cohort Learning Networks, spent a week in Colombia with barrier removal consultant, Robert Yaguache, visiting four different Rare Pride campaign sites in four different regions of Colombia.
Robert is from Ecuador and is an expert in designing and negotiating agreements where farmers are compensated for conserving their land in exchange for the water that their forests generate for people downstream.
Above is Robert (center) and the Corpoguavio team near Guasca, Colombia talking with a farm administrator about his farming techniques. Guasca is near Bogota and adjacent to Chingaza National Park. They are standing in a newly cleared potato field. Note how fertile the soil is; clearing land for potatoes is a major threat to this region.
Paramos are high alpine plateaus in the Andes, between the forest line and permanent snow line. This plant is an example of typical paramo vegetation, starting at about 3,000 meters. While it might seem surprising, the paramo ecosystems of the Andes are home to over 5,000 plant species, nearly 60 percent of which are endemic.
Robert (center) spends time working with Javier (left), who’s worked in this region for nearly seven years and Roberto (right), an extensionist working with Corpoguavio, helping them prioritize the best lands and which farmers to target for negotiations.
We left Guasca and headed to a town called Roncesvalles.
In this community, ProAves is a leader in promoting Yellow-eared parrot conservation. In a move that rarely happens, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) just announced that the status of the Yellow-eared Parrot is being downgraded from “Critically Endangered” to “Endangered.” The move recognizes the remarkable achievements of three conservation organizations — Fundación ProAves, Fundación Loro Parque, and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) — in conserving the species.
The painting featured on the telephone poll above is a symbol of ProAves work in Roncesvalles. In ten years, the number of parrots has gone from 90 to more than 600 due to their work to stop harvesting of the Wax palm (palma de cera), especially during the Lenten season when the palms are harvested for Palm Sunday celebrations. ProAves does regular monitoring of the parrots.
A fence made of Wax Palm.
Heidy showing a map of the watershed in Rocesvalle. Gonzalo (left) is a member of the ProAves team and a local farmer.
Next stop: San Vicente de Chucuri (pictured above)
Mules bringing down fruit grown inside the Serrania de Yariguies National Park, home to three different AZE priority species, including the Cerulean Warbler and Gorgeted Wood-quail. Clearing forest for berry growing is a threat here.
Above is an example of agroforestry in this region. Along the streams coffee and cacao are harvested. The park is negotiating with landowners who had title to their land before the park was declared to buy them out.
This is San Vicente’s water treatment facility. With more land conserved in the upper watershed, water quality will improve.
Last stop: Farallones de Cali National Park
Next stop: Queremal. Above is a photo of Queremal, near Cali, from the top of the watershed.
We traveled around with Pride campaign manager Jaime Alexander Millán Castillo. Here he is opening a stakeholder workshop with a tool he learned in Rare’s Pride campaign training, the web of life game.
Stakeholders discussing how they can be involved in the campaign at Farallones de Cali National Park.
The flower (the queremal) shown on this poster is already a source of pride at this site and is used here in publicity for an Andean music festival. Jaime will include this flower as part of his campaign design.
Jaime at a hummingbird feeder along the San Antonio Km. 18 Important Bird Area. Colombia has the most bird species in the world — more than 1,800! Here he gets close to a White-necked Jacobin (Florisuga mellivora).
