WORLDTWITCH COLOMBIA

UPDATE - 11 January 2004: Ken Berlin reports that the American Bird Conservancy raised $100,000 in time to complete this transaction and to purchase additional land.

Urgent Conservation Request: $70,000 needed by January 5, 2004 to purchase critical forest habitat for $100 per hectare.

Excerpts from a report prepared by Dr. Paul Salaman & Thomas Donegan [MAPS]

Protecting the last relic humid forests of the Magdalena valley, Serranía de las Quinchas, Central Colombia: Distress sale of pristine forest wilderness by liquidated company requires urgent funding by 5 January 2004.

ProAves Foundation UK Contacts: Nigel Hughes, Trustee, ProAves Foundation (UK) (email)
Paul Salaman, Conservation International Colombia (email)
ProAves Colombia (email).

Maps are on a separate page

Summary

The lowland humid forests of the Magdalena valley contain a unique assemblage of flora and fauna, for example the Critically Endangered Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti, Magdalena Tinamou Crypturellus saltuarius, Variegated Spider-Monkey Ateles hybridus, and Magdalena Tapir Tapirus terrestris columbianus. However, historical and modern-day colonization and the lack of any protected area across the entire Magdalena Valley ecosystem have resulted in perhaps the most alarming environmental situation in South America. The sole surviving lowland forest block, amounting to some 12,000 ha of humid Magdalena Valley Forest, is located 130 km NW of Colombia's capital, Bogotá in Serranía de las Quinchas. Surveys in the 1990's highlighted the area's critical importance for biodiversity, but no efforts were mounted to protect it (Stiles and Bohorquez 1999).

In November 2003, the company that currently owns the largest portion of the lowland humid forest in Serranía de las Quinchas went into liquidation and is now engaged in a distress sale of its 700 ha stake of pristine lowland forest, at first proposed to be organised by the sale of small land parcels to colonists and farmers seeking to clear and exploit the land. This lowland forest is strategically placed as a buffer zone into an extensive forested mountain range that rises to almost to 2,000 m elevation. Importantly, this land encompasses perhaps the last viable population of many Magdalena valley endemics, such as the Blue-billed Curassow (a healthy population still survives here as the company prohibited hunting), and all within 5 hours of Bogotá via good roads.

Fundación ProAves learnt of the situation and has agreed with the company which holds legal land titles to this unique forest wilderness to suspend its sale for 30 days whilst Fundación Proaves seeks funds to buy the 700 ha for conservation. The pristine forest is being sold at USD$130 per hectare, however, ProAves on 3 December 2003 has been offered the entire forest fragment for the discounted price of just USD$100 per ha, with 700ha being sold for US$70,000 (£40,500). ProAves has obtained funding to support three researchers of threatened species and we are presently mapping in detail the entire Serranía to produce a conservation strategy with Conservation International.

There exists a real and urgent need to raise $70,000 (£40,500) by 5 January 2004 to purchase the land. Whilst this represents only 6% of surviving forests in Serranía de las Quinchas, it would present the first protected area of this ecosystem and would strategically protect almost 3400 ha of foothill and subtropical forest the only access to which is through this lowland forest fragment. So in reality, purchase of this 700ha fragment would protect the entire 4100 ha forest ecosystem, equivalent to a cost of just US$20 per ha, although legal title to that additional land would be sought following the purchase of the initial buffer zone. Researchers and full-time forest guards in the area would act to protect the forest, if purchased, during an interim period of establishing of forest guards and a management strategy, using management techniques successfully developed in other ProAves nature reserves in Colombia.

Introduction

The Río Magdalena extends 1300 km directly south from the Caribbean coast to its source deep in the Colombian Andes (2ºN). It forms the "Magdalena Valley", a 324,000 km² area sandwiched between Colombia's Eastern and Central Andean ranges or Cordilleras, and can be divided into three regions: Upper, Middle, and Lower Magdalena which encompass a range of lowland ecosystems, from arid scrub to wet lowland forest. The most important geographical and ecological feature of the Magdalena Valley are the wet forests of Serranía de las Quinchas, on the east bank of the river and western slope of the Eastern Cordillera, in the Department of Boyacá, Santander and Cundinamarca.

Serranía de las Quinchas contains one of the richest lowland biotas outside of the Amazon, with high levels of species richness and endemism (Annex 1). Paradoxically, its megadiversity is also one of the most threatened in the Americas. For four centuries, the Río Magdalena was the main conduit for commerce and communications for the densely populated interior of Colombia, including the capital city of Bogotá. Although much of the Magdalena Valley had been converted to agricultural land or pastures as early as the 18^th Century, the very wet middle portion (between c.5º and 7ºN) remained heavily forested until relatively recently. Fueled by glowing (and unrealistic) reports of the region's natural wealth, in the 1960s and 1970s the Colombian government sponsored a massive internationally financed colonization and infrastructure program that resulted in the elimination of nearly four million ha of humid lowland forest in little over a decade. During the 1980s and 1990s infrastructure and colonization programs continued unabated. Today, the Magdalena Valley is almost completed deforested and intensively farmed.

By the time the National Protected Areas network was being established in the 1970s, land colonization in the Magdalena valley region was prevalent and widespread, and subsequently no National Park was established in the Magdalena Valley as no suitable forest wilderness could be found. Even subtropical forests on Magdalena Valley slopes of both the Central and Eastern Cordillera's of Colombia remain wholly unprotected. This oversight was captured in the Global Gap Analysis (Rodriguez et al. 2003; pp 35), and highlighted at the World Parks Congress in South Africa (2003).

In 1999, Dr Gary Stiles and Clara Bohorquez of Colombia's Universidad Nacional (National University) in an important international bird journal highlighted Serranía de las Quinchas as "Essentially the only well-preserved cloud forest and the largest block of lowland wet forest in the region" and that it "emerges as an important area for further study and a strong candidate for protective measures."

During Stiles' investigations in the early to mid 1990's, up to 50,000 ha of forest remained in the region and the Río Ermitaño watershed in the interior of the Serranía was "of difficult access (we have not been able to visit this area)". Less than a decade later, the Río Ermitaño is accessible and only 12,000 ha of forest remains.

Fundación ProAves' Vice-President, Alonso Quevedo, visited the site in November 2003 and within a few days discovered numerous Critically Endangered species, including nesting Blue-billed Curassow Crax alberti, troops of Variegated Spider-Monkey Ateles hybridus, tracks of Magdalena Tapir Tapirus terrestris columbianus, and the Magdalena Tortoise Geochelone carbonariai.

The importance of Serranía de las Quinchas for biodiversity conservation is abundantly clear. Las Quinchas represents the last relic forest for numerous Critically Endangered species and a total of at least 24 other globally Threatened Species (in birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, and reptiles) restricted to Magdalena Valley humid forests. The region's forests have diminished significantly in the past 3 decades by uncontrolled colonization. Considering the present regional deforestation rates and given that the forests of Serranía de las Quinchas remain wholly unprotected, it is not unrealistic to perceive their complete expatriation within 5 to 10 years without urgent conservation attention. Under these extreme circumstances we present an emergency strategy to place into protective custody 700 ha of pristine lowland forest (350-550 m elevation) from a liquidated company. The land buffers a further 3,400 ha of foothill to subtropical (cloud forest) that will be protected to form the Serranía de las Quinchas Nature Reserve, administered by Fundación ProAves.

Action Plan

This is a summary of the recommended next steps to protect the Serrania de las Quinchas:

1) Land titles and deeds reviewed by ProAves legal advisers to confirm good title. COMPLETED

2) Price for land purchase agreed. COMPLETED $100 per ha for 700 ha confirmed (total US$70,000).

3) Maps of land for sale reviewed. IN PROGESS

4) Forest cover compared with area for sale. COMPLETED

5) Emergency proposal completed for raising land costs. COMPLETED

6) FUND-RAISING FOR LAND PURCHASE MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE JANUARY 5, 2004

7) Full conservation proposal completed for implementing conservation action and protecting land purchased. Will included full investigation, community education, and protective programme. BEFORE 1 JANUARY 2004

8) FUND-RAISING for conservation action costs.

9) Purchase of land – lawyers to exchange and legalise deeds. MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE Feb 1, 2004.

10) Implement conservation action plan. Following land purchase.

About Fundación ProAves and Colombia

Fundación ProAves is Colombia's bird conservation and research NGO, which supports conservation initiatives, manages nature reserves and national parks and raises awareness of bird conservation issues in Colombia and worldwide. Fundación ProAves currently successfully manages [3] pristine forest nature reserves in Colombia. ProAves has charitable status in Colombia and the UK and is keen to explore tax-efficient donation strategies with potential donors.

JWW Note: To qualify for a tax deduction, contributions by UK taxpayers should be made through the ProAves Foundation (UK) (email). I have recommended to ProAves that they explore an emergency arrangement with a US 501(c)(3) exempt organization so that US taxpayers may make deductible contributions. Perhaps Conservation International would be the appropriate organization, since their Colombian affiliate is involved in this project.