Colombia

Colombia is a country of striking contrasts and outstanding natural beauty.

Its location, bridging Central and South America, produces a diverse array of climatic conditions and remarkable patterns of biological diversity. Colombia is home to over 10% of the world’s plant and animal species despite covering just 0.7% of the planet’s surface.

Colombia has 1,821 bird species, more than any other country in the world. It also has the highest number of amphibians. Incredibly, around one third of its plant species and 12% of its terrestrial vertebrates do not exist anywhere else in the world.

Colombia is also visited by large numbers of migratory species. These include endangered and threatened species such as the humpback whale, which comes to the Pacific coastal waters of Bahia Malaga to breed, give birth and nurse its young; and the marine turtle, which visits Colombia’s Pacific and Caribbean beaches to lay its eggs.

Threats

Weak governance systems hinder and limit forest conservation and management. Current policies support perverse subsidies and taxes that favour land uses such as grazing, agriculture and non-forest development.

Latest UN figures show Colombia loses nearly 2,000 sq km of natural forest every year. The greatest threats to Colombia’s forests are deforestation and degradation.

This results from small-scale agriculture and from larger plantations. This includes clearance to make way for palm oil plantations; illegal or unsustainable logging; mining, oil and gas developments; the expansion of infrastructure, which is increasing access to the forests and encouraging colonisation; and the production of illicit crops. Four hectares of forest are cleared for this for every hectare of coca planted.

Deforestation and degradation increase CO₂ emissions and accelerate the effects of climate change. This threatens Colombia’s biodiversity, particularly in the highly vulnerable Andean montane ecosystems, which are dependent on glaciers and precipitation for their water supply.

Deforestation is degrading water supplies and reducing the environmental services that forests provide, including preventing severe water run-off and regulating climate. This has negative impacts on the livelihoods of the large and relatively dense populations of people living in the Andes.

Solutions

Until 2013, WWF will concentrate its efforts in two areas of Colombia, the Choco-Darien forests along the Pacific coast, and the Amazon.

And until 2010, we will also be working in the Northern Andes.

WWF will work to minimise the amount of forest lost through conversion and from forest fragmentation, where, due mostly to human impact, areas of forests are separated from others. This will maintain ecological processes, environmental services and habitats for species.

To achieve this goal, we are working to integrate environmental and biodiversity considerations in infrastructure, energy and water policies.

We are promoting a National Compensation Scheme to pay for environmental services. This will make conservation more economically attractive and thus reduce forest loss.

We support institutions and communities in working together to increase sustainability and reduce conflict over natural resources and illegal activities.

We aim to strengthen governance systems for land management, and are designing and implementing strategies on how we can adapt to the impacts of climate change.

WWF is working with the corporate sector to include environmental and social considerations in the way it operates, as well as reducing carbon and water footprints in oil palm, biofuel and pulp and paper production.

We will work to promote responsible forest management and production of timber and non-timber products. We will work in four focal areas covering 300,000 hectares, benefiting 15 community-based organisations, in programmes that aim to reduce illegal logging.