Conserving Biodiversity in a Complex Biological and Social Setting: The Case of Colombia

Abstract

The multi-temporal and spatial scale interaction of history, geography, and evolution are responsible for Colombia's extreme diversity. In spite of a partially comprehensive protected area system, much of the territory remains exposed to the negative impacts of development and ecosystem transformation. Colombian biodiversity in the twenty-first century, in addition to consolidating conventional conservation strategies, must face up to emerging new challenges deriving from: (a) the vulnerability of montane biodiversity to fragmentation and climate change; (b) the transformation and contamination of natural and seminatural ecosystems by large-scale mining activities; (c) the displacement of its large cattle industry from the more appropriate savannas in the eastern plains to the Caribbean plains, replacing dry forest with savannas, while turning the original savannas into high-intensity agricultural monocultures; and (d) the consolidation of a conservation regime in the extensive communal lands in the Chocó and Amazon regions, and incorporating the extensive marine territory into its conservation plans.