Protecting the Andean Cloud Forests of Colombia
One of Planet Earth’s Unique Places
Cloud forests account for only 1% of global forests.
The Andes Mountains are home to 1/6 of the world’s biodiversity.
Scientists believe only 10% of species in the region have been documented.
Invest In Nature-Based Carbon Credits To Restore A Biodiversity Hotspot
Invest in nature-based carbon removal credits and make a tangible impact on the environment and local communities by offsetting your carbon footprint with carbon removal credits from our reforestation project in Antioquia, Colombia. Carbon removal credits from our project ensure the protection of diverse species, prevention of extinctions, and support for the local community. By participating, your company will contribute to crucial ecosystem restoration and scientific research efforts while benefiting from verifiable carbon removal credits and significant co-benefits. Join us in this essential endeavor to connect and restore forests and achieve lasting environmental change. Secure your nature-based carbon removal credits today and be a part of the solution to global climate challenges.
What Is A Cloud Forest?
High-altitude cloud forests play a significant role in sequestering carbon, harboring biodiversity, and providing crucial ecological services, making them invaluable for conservation efforts. These unique ecosystems support an immense variety of life, much of which exists nowhere else on Earth.
Despite accounting for only 1% of global forests, cloud forests are among the planet’s most unique and biodiversity-rich regions. Cloud forests provide critical habitats, regulate water cycles, maintain watershed health, mitigate climate change, and protect soils from erosion.
These special places are also among the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet to the effects of climate change. They are under siege from deforestation, changes in land use, forest fragmentation, population pressures, and climate change. Protecting cloud forests is essential to preserving the planet’s rich and unique biodiversity and ensuring the continuation of their vital ecological services.
What Makes This Place Unique?
High in the Andean mountains of Colombia lies one of the most biologically rich regions on Earth. The unique misty conditions in these isolated cloud forests, support species found nowhere else on Earth. Colombia’s Western Andes, including this project location, are one of 36 biodiversity hotspots considered among the world’s most diverse and threatened places on the planet.
These high-altitude forests are home to species with very small geographical ranges and therefore among the most threatened with extinction. They are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and habitat loss. Migratory birds are a prime example—while many important species have large breeding ranges, their wintering ranges are often much smaller. Protecting the cloud forests of Colombia is a critical step in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.
With only an estimated 10% of species in the region identified and new species being recorded regularly, this biodiversity hotspot is crucial for conservation. Protecting these forests and their species is imperative before they are lost forever.
Project Snapshot
The project’s primary goals are to connect and restore forests, protect species from imminent threats, prevent extinctions, support the local community, and contribute to ecosystem restoration and scientific research efforts. The project partnership will result in the successful reforestation of over 556 hectares (1,400 acres) of cloud forest habitat in Antioquia, Colombia. The conservation and reforestation of this unique biodiversity hotspot results in tangible environmental and social benefits— including third-party verifiable carbon removals and co-benefits.
The project is located in a region that contains approximately one-sixth of our planet’s total biodiversity, encompassing over 300,000 species, including many vulnerable, threatened, and endangered species. It also provides important winter habitat for migratory North American birds during the non-breeding season.
Project Team
The project is being implemented through a partnership between non-profit organizations Fundación Bioconservancy and Saving Nature. Fundación Bioconservancy, founded in 2005, centers its efforts on the conservation of biodiversity in the northwest Andes of Colombia. The foundation supports and executes directly scientific research, environmental education and conservation activities. Currently, over 7,000 acres (3,500-ha) of forests are being protected at the Mesenia-Paramillo Nature Reserve where the reforestation and restoration is occurring. The Mesenia-Paramillo Nature Reserve has become an integral and important part of community recovery by increasing incomes, supporting community health and education, and connecting the remote community to the outside world. Tree planting has created additional economic opportunities, with community nurseries collecting and germinating seeds and supplying seedlings for reforestation.
Saving Nature, founded in 2019, adopts a unique approach for leveraging local conservation actions to solve global environmental challenges by connecting critical habitats for biodiversity. They restore and recover tropical forests to connect forest fragments that are too small for the long-term survival of threatened, endangered, and endemic species. Rooted in the belief that empowering local communities is the only way to ensure long-term success, they partnered with Fundación Bioconservancy to implement the 556-ha reforestation project to jointly meet conservation goals.
Project Highlights
Biodiversity Hotspot
Community Employment
Carbon Credits
Ecosystem Restoration
Scientific Exploration
Threats To This Forest’s Survival
Forest fragmentation has significant negative impacts on species and cloud forest habitat. When forests are fragmented, species lose their continuous habitat and become more vulnerable to threats – some species have gone extinct due to the loss of suitable habitat and resources. Isolated forest patches hinder species movement and gene flow. As a result of climate change, species are trying to migrate upslope to cooler climates but face significant challenges due to forest fragmentation and deforested areas they cannot bridge. The project is taking urgent conservation action to reconnect fragmented forests and support habitat.