Conservation in Colombia
The elevated level of transformation of the natural distribution of this ecosystem, has lead to huge degradation, reducing the environmental goods and services that it once provided. Vulnerability to desertification processes in consequence of the climate shift and human activities is the main threat to the Colombian dry forest.
Dry forest is an ecosystem poorly represented in the Colombian National System of Protected Areas, with only 3 % of protected areas. However, in the last 3 years, all the efforts have been focused in declaration of new regional protected areas to ensure the conservation of the small dry forest relicts in the Colombian Caribbean. The critical state of dry forest conservation, determine the national necessity to promote the study and conservation of all its areas, including regenerated zones as they give a chance to conserve a representative sample of this ecosystem. In this context, the restoration has become an important conservation tool for this biome.
All the conservation initiatives developed include a planning process with the landowners, the institutions, and the local communities that depend on the dry forest resources. In this way, by creating different conservation zones, we produce various opportunities to protect the forest that involve research, strict preservation, sustainable management, and restoration programs.
Dry forest is an ecosystem poorly represented in the Colombian National System of Protected Areas, with only 3 % of protected areas. However, in the last 3 years, all the efforts have been focused in declaration of new regional protected areas to ensure the conservation of the small dry forest relicts in the Colombian Caribbean. The critical state of dry forest conservation, determine the national necessity to promote the study and conservation of all its areas, including regenerated zones as they give a chance to conserve a representative sample of this ecosystem. In this context, the restoration has become an important conservation tool for this biome.
All the conservation initiatives developed include a planning process with the landowners, the institutions, and the local communities that depend on the dry forest resources. In this way, by creating different conservation zones, we produce various opportunities to protect the forest that involve research, strict preservation, sustainable management, and restoration programs.