Design and implementation of the conservation corridor Toribio River, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia

Abstract

Based on bird research, the basin of the Toribio River on the slopes of San Lorenzo Hill was declared as the first Important Bird Area (IBA) in the Colombian Caribbean region, a programme by the Alexander Von Humboldt Institute and Birdlife international. To ensure the long term protection of IBA, a conservation corridor has been devised in the basin of the Toribio River, on the North East slope of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, county of Magdalena, within an altitudinal gradient which ranges from 450 to 2.600 m (above sea level), as an Interlink of Agro-forestry and natural Eco-systems mosaics. The certification programme ‘Critical Ecosystems Alliance’ (CEA), was developed as an implementation instrument of the conservation corridor, with specific conservation criterion and unique for Colombia and South America. The corridor implementation was carried out through the establishment of 34 nurseries with 61.000 planting bags and 36.000 seedlings produced from native species, timber-yielding and fruit-bearing for the bio-diversification of the agro-forestry systems and for the reforestation of the critical areas. In 34 premises the criterion was implemented handling 69 water springs, 308 ha of agro-forestry systems with a diversified shade, 101 ha of reforestation areas and 182 ha of freed areas for the habitat conservation and recovery.