Conserving 13 species of threatened amphibians in Colombia's Serranía de los Paraguas

The Calima Foundation, in coordination with the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), is leading a project to implement actions in favor of amphibian conservation with the participation of community stakeholders, scientists and conservation professionals.

Fundación Calima, an entity whose overall objective is to promote initiatives for the sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources in Colombia, leads the project "Conserving 13 species of threatened amphibians in the Serranía de los Paraguas de Colombia" which is supported by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), the Regional Implementation Team (RIT) of the Tropical Andes Hotspot, formed by Profonanpe in Peru, Fondo Patrimonio Natural as a support team in Colombia and ACEAA in Bolivia, with counterparts from The Prince Bernhard Nature Fund (PBNF) and the support of The Rufford Foundation and Corporación Serraniagua.

The project, which is already underway and whose implementation will continue through 2023, has among its objectives to monitor threatened species of amphibians, update and implement their species conservation plans with the participation of various key stakeholders such as: local communities, educators, scientists and conservation professionals (engineers and environmental technicians). In turn, it seeks to generate awareness and interest in the conservation of these species in the Serranía de los Paraguas (Paraguas-Munchique Corridor / BM of southern Antioquia), the empowerment of women through their participation in all phases of the project and the training of communities in the territory in strategies for sustainable conservation of biodiversity.

Fundación Calima and its role in amphibian conservation:

Fundación Calima has been developing conservation initiatives with amphibians in the Serranía de los Paraguas since 2019, with funding from the Fundación Ruffourd on two occasions (2019, 2021) and more recently from the Prince Bernhard Nature Fund (2022-2023).

It has also carried out projects in coordination with Colombian universities (Universidad Icesi, Universidad del Valle) and is part of the IUCN Amphibian Specialist Group in the country. As a result of these alliances, cooperation agreements have been established with the Serraniagua Corporation to implement intervention strategies for threatened amphibian species in the Serranía de los Paraguas.

Among the results obtained, it has been demonstrated the need to continue with field monitoring to collect evidence in the short and medium term to evaluate the effectiveness of the conservation actions implemented. In the same way, during their field monitoring days they have found species that had not been recorded for more than 20 years, species that are in imminent danger of extinction and species new to science, which require the implementation of urgent conservation measures.

Parallel to these processes, during 2019 in Phase II of CEPF's investment in the Tropical Andes Biodiversity Hotspot, preliminary biodiversity studies were conducted in the Key Conservation Area (KBA) El Alto del Oso, one of the mountain peaks of the Serranía de los Paraguas located in the department of Chocó. The development of these studies was led by the Association of Agroecological Producers of San José del Palmar Chocó "ASOPALMAR" with the support of Serranigua. Among the results generated during the biodiversity characterizations, a total of seven species of amphibians were reported, of which two are in a threatened category, one in a critical state(Oophaga histrionica ) and the other in danger(Phyllobates bicolor).

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