Consolidation of the Ramsar site Lagunas de Chingaza in the northeastern Colombian Andes

This project will take place in about 12.000 ha. of Chingaza National Park and its buffer zone. Chingaza National Park covers 76.600 ha in the Eastern Andes of Colombia, to the Northeast of Bogota. The altitude in the national park varies from 480 to 4.020 m and the average temperature is 8,8 degrees Celsius, but varies greatly along different altitudes. Also depending on the altitudes, one can find different ecosystems in the area, such as Andean forests, high Andean forests, subpáramo and páramo. Each of these ecosystems has its own specific types of animal and plant species, including threatened palms (Ceroxilum sp., Geonoma sp.), frailejones (typical for páramo landscape) and 8 Sphagnum species that play a crucial role in the functioning of the ecosystem, as they can retain up to 40 times their weight in water. Over 200 bird species have been recorded in the national park, and the area is home to various mammals, such as the Andean tapir (endangered) and the spectacled bear (vulnerable). Besides being of ecological importance, Chingaza National Park is also of economical importance, since its lakes provide as much as 80% of the water that is consumed by the 7 million inhabitants of Bogotá and supply the 300.000 inhabitants of Villavicencio. The lakes in the national park also supply a hydro electrical plant. The main threats to this area are overexploitation of the hydrological resources, the existence of private properties in fragile parts of the national park and its surroundings, cattle-raising and hunting. This has resulted in degradation of the area and fragmentation of habitats. Fundepáramos defines the lack of government control and the attitude of the local populations as underlying causes of these problems. Fundepáramos has been working in this area for several years and the present project builds on the experiences of a previous project supported by IUCN NL, aimed at having the Lagunas de Chingaza declared a RAMSAR site. During the current project, the process of the declaration of the RAMSAR site will be completed and a management plan for the area will be developed. Besides this, the project will address one of the major socio-environmental issues identified during the previous project, which is the conflict between the local population and the spectacled bear. As the habitat of the spectacled bear has been fragmented, and many of the plants it feeds on have become rare, the spectacled bear has turned to attacking the cattle raised by the local population for food. In return, the local farmers have killed several bears over the past few years. Fundepáramos proposes to train people in planning the land use on their plots in a more efficient way, so that they can keep raising cattle, can improve the yields of their crops and provide adequate space and vegetation for the spectacled bear.