Western Andes-Choco

The Andes-Chocó landscape is an exceptional area, as it possesses a wide altitudinal gradient: it starts at sea level, on the Colombian Pacific coast, including coastal and marine ecosystems, such as soft bottoms, corals, and mangroves, through Andean forests, reaching 4,000 meters of elevation, where the paramo ecosystem is found. The watersheds that flow into the geographic valley of the Cauca River and the Pacific region provide fresh water to millions of people in urban and rural areas, including collective territories of Afro-descendant and indigenous communities that cover almost 60% of this landscape. For these reasons, we aim to protect the connectivity of these ecosystems through different conservation strategies, such as increasing the area under protection, consolidating sustainable productive alternatives, and strengthening the governance schemes of the environmental authorities and the ethnic and rural communities.