This solution, which was implemented from 2014 to 2020 in Colombia, on the northern part of the Andes mountain range, aimed to help restore, manage and conserve important high altitude ecosystems known as paramos (moorlands).
The Chingaza, Sumapaz, Guerrero and Cerros Orientales paramos conservation corridor, located in the Eastern Ranges of Colombia, is home to about 20% of the country's population and holds a key socioeconomic-environmental significance as it supplies water to more than 10 million users in 22 municipalities, including the rural and urban areas of the Bogotá Capital District (D.C.). The corridor also possesses great ecosystemic and sociocultural diversity. However, this is being threatened by the expansion of the agricultural frontier (extensive cattle ranching and industrial potato monoculture), the development of road, energy, mining, urban and agroindustrial megaprojects. These issues, together with the marginalization and displacement of local populations, and climate change and variability, threaten the integrity of the páramos and forests, including the ecosystem services they provide, particularly water regulation and supply, and the maintenance of biodiversity.
In view of this problem and the socioeconomic-environmental importance of the corridor, the Bogota Water, Sewage and Sanitation Company (EAAB-ESP) implemented the project "Conservation, restoration and sustainable use of ecosystem services between the Sumapaz, Chingaza and Guerrero paramos, the eastern hills of Bogotá and their areas of influence", also known as Proyecto Páramos (PPs). This project focuses on the participatory care of paramos and the improvement of rural livelihoods of small farmers in order to guarantee the supply and quality of water for the inhabitants of Bogotá D.C. as well as for the population living in the corridor. To this end, a series of strategies were implemented focusing on conservation and ecological restoration, productive reconversion and sustainable land use, socio-environmental management and institutional strengthening, the scope of which is described below.
(Por favor consulte el documento adjunto para la versión en ESPAÑOL)