Mountain EbA – Colombia
Mountain EbA – Colombia Project
The tropical páramos or moorland of Colombia represent half of the world’s moorlands, with an area of 2.9 million hectares. These highland habitats provide important ecosystem services, mostly related to providing and regulating water, both for the populations that inhabit them, and for many neighboring cities and hydroelectric stations.
Although páramos represent only three percent of the continental territory in Colombia, they are responsible for regulating and supplying seventy percent of the water to three quarters of the country. That is why these highland ecosystems play pivotal environmental, social and economic roles.
IUCN and the The Mountain Institute’s Andes Program (Instituto de Montaña) join ongoing EbA efforts in Colombia through the “Scaling Up Mountain EbA Program.” The two organizations work in collaboration with Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Minambiente) as part of the project on climate change adaptation in high mountain ecosystems: “Adaptation to Climate Impacts in Water Regulation and Supply for the Chingaza-Sumapaz-Guerrero Area.” This project is also supported by Conservation International Colombia (CI-Colombia).
The Scaling Up Mountain EbA Project in Colombia adds to ongoing actions of the project mentioned above whose goal is to strengthen the hydrological regulation and buffer capacity of upper areas in selected watersheds. These provide drinking water to the capital city of Bogotá and its neighboring municipalities. The EbA measures adopted in this project include conservation actions, restoring natural ecosystems and agro-ecosystems, and sustainable management.
The Scaling Up Mountain EbA Program will exchange EbA experiences, resources and tools in mountain ecosystems, based on the initiatives implemented in the six countries included in this Program as well as from other experiences implemented by IUCN and partners, regionally and globally.
The Colombia project will also contribute to promoting and expanding EbA in country, through capacity building and exchanges with other EbA initiatives that are currently being carried out in Colombia. In this way, the Scaling Up Mountain EbA project in Colombia will support better positioning the EbA approach with an emphasis on mountain ecosystems.
Mt EbA Colombia Project–Partners and Co-Funders
- Colombian Ministery of Environment and Sustainable Development
- Conservation International – Colombia
Karen Podvin, Climate Change Adaptation Program Officer, IUCN South America Regional Office.
Email: karen.PODVIN@iucn.org
Learn more about Mountain EbA projects in KENYA, NEPAL, PERU, UGANDA and BHUTAN.
The official name of our program is “Scaling Up Mountain Ecosystem-Based Adaptation: building evidence, replicating success, and informing policy”. This program is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag. Our Mountain EbA Program is led by The Mountain Institute (TMI) and implemented jointly with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and country partners over the period 2017-2020.
