International recognition of bird diversity supports conservation of Cuyas cloud forest. |
Paramos is a unique alpine grassland ecosystem, found above the tree line and below the snow line of the Andean mountains. Species have evolved within a highly varied landscape of glacier-formed valleys and plains with lakes, peat bogs, and wet grasslands interspersed with shrub-land and forest patches. Due to altitude, species in this ecosystem have also had to adapt to low atmospheric pressure, intense ultraviolet radiation, and the drying effects of wind. Paramos, therefore, boast unusually high numbers of endemic species, including up to 60 percent of the 5,000 species of plants found in these ecosystems.
In 2002 the Andean Community of Nations—a trade bloc comprising the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru—recognized the Andean paramos or highlands as a cross-border ecosystem as a high priority for conservation.
What NCI Is Doing
NCI is collaborating with the Institute of Management of Hydrographic Basins to implement a project to conserve Peruvian paramos. Its main purpose is to promote processes of conservation and sustainable exploitation of biodiversity and water sources in highland ecosystems. The project covers areas in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru (Piura and Cajamarca). In Piura, the project sites are known as Pacaipampa (lands of San Pablo and Cachiaco) and Ayabaca (rural community of Samanga), both belonging to the binational Catamayo-Chira river basin. Through this project, NCI is working to:
• Sustainably manage highland areas and their areas of influence.
• Develop policies and laws to support conservation and sustainable development practices;
• Build local capacities to support conservation and sustainable development practices;
• Inform and communicate with local communities on conservation goals; and
• Replicate project successes.
During the project’s first year, communities and municipalities have honored formal agreements with the project in delimiting the Andean highlands and forests at the work site, inventorying biodiversity, geo-referencing 50% of the lagoons in the Andean highlands of the Ayabaca province, and placing an intern in the Cochecorral Community in Amaluza (Ecuador). During 2007, the project will begin implementing participative management by local communities.
Donors: The Mountain Institute, Consortium for Sustainable Development of the Andean Eco-region (CONDESAN), and the Global Environment Facility.
