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Colombia Background
Environmentally, Colombia is a mega-diverse country from its natural land terrain to its biological wildlife. Its biodiversity is a result of its geographical location and elevation. It is the fourth largest South American country and only country in South America to have coasts in the Pacific and Caribbean ocean. Colombia’s terrain can be divided into six main natural zones: The Caribbean, the Pacific (including Choco’s Biogeographic rainforest), The Orinoco region, The Amazonia region, the Andean region, and the Insular region. 52.2% of the environment is predominately the Andes, Amazon, and Pacific Basins, followed by the Orinoco basin 13.9%, the Andes and the Caribbean. The Tropical Andes, Choco, and the Caribbean are considered biodiversity hotspots which puts these areas at high risk of concentration of colonizing activities. Colombia hosts over 1800 species and at least one new species is detected every year. Decades of civil war and political unrest has impeded biological and environmental research in Colombia. The political unrest in Colombia catalyzes the alteration of land patterns through the cultivation of coca and opium crops, the redirection of extractive activities, and land abandonment in some areas.
Contents
There are many environmental issues in Colombia.
Current issues include deforestation resulting from timber exploitation in the jungles of the Amazon and the region of Chocó, illicit drug crops grown by peasants in the national parks of Serranía de la Macarena and Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and soil erosion.
There is soil and water quality damage from contamination by the use of chemicals in the coca-refining process, spillage of crude oil into the local rivers as a result of guerrilla sabotage of pipelines, and overuse of pesticides, air pollution (especially in Bogotá) from vehicle emissions, and the preservation of wildlife.
Natural hazards include highlands subject to volcanic eruptions, occasional earthquakes, and periodic droughts.
Deforestation
Colombia loses 2,000 km2 of forest annually to deforestation, according to the United Nations in 2003. Some suggest that this figure is as high as 3,000 km² due to illegal logging in the region. Deforestation results mainly from logging for timber, small-scale agricultural ranching, mining, development of energy resources such as hydro-electricity, infrastructure, cocaine production, and farming. Around one-third of the country's original forest has been removed as a result of deforestation.
Deforestation in Colombia is mainly targeted at primary rainforest which covers more than 80% of Colombia. This has a profound ecological impact in that Colombia is extremely rich in biodiversity, with 10% of the world's species, making it the second most biologically diverse country on Earth.
A national and regional deforestation study in Colombia found a total loss of 5,116,071 ha of forest between 1990 and 2005 which indicates an annual deforestation rate of 341,071 ha. This concludes the national rate of deforestation equals to 0.62%. Higher deforestation rates are found in flatter areas around rural locations where protected areas are more present. Even though majority of ecosystems in the Amazon, the Choco, and the Orinoco remain intact, 70% of original forest in the Andes has been wiped out. Forest conversion has the highest probability in the Andean and Caribbean territory, although tropical forest in the Pacific and Amazon lowlands continue to be exterminated. The ecosystems most vulnerable to deforestation ranked: the plains in northern Amazonia, the humid high, sub, and mid-altitute Andean forests, the tropical high and low land forests in the Caribbean and the Magdalena tropical forest plains. Deforestation is happening more frequently in flatter zones, where cattle density and rural population are low. Illicit crop cultivation has been recorded a main driver of deforestation in Colombia. The globalized economy has extended new engenders of deforestation, such as biofuel production, mining, and hydrocarbon extraction. At the national level, rate of rural population, protected areas, cattle practicing, and slope, are deforestation drivers. Forest eradication is a crucial environmental issue given the biodiversity and ecosystems these forests provide and all the life that can be potentially lost. The concurrent forested areas predominately exist on less fertile soil and are distant from roads.
Amazonian Deforestation
In Colombia, majority of forests are contained within the Amazonia. The population of this region is sparsely populated engendering the zone to be concentrated by deforestation and high levels of extractive activities. In the Colombian Amazonia from 1990 to 2005 there was a forest loss of 1,886,769 ha (3.9%) with an annual rate of 0.49%. Deforestation in this region is accounted to population and land use. The Amazonia possess a low populated area with small scale agriculture (including illegal crops), and cattle ranching. Fires in the Amazon also remain as a catalyst of deforestation which is an indicator of slash and burn activities associated with exploitation of natural resources. Study results suggest deforestation in the Amazonia often takes place in unoccupied rural territory where an influx of “colonist population move freely and colonization hotspots using the river” are created.
Deforestation in the Orinoco
Majority of the Orinoco is composed by grasslands and pastures areas with small-scale agriculture, forest with extensive river networks and a small population. A major threat to this region is deforestation, and deforestation is a critical menace to biodiversity. From 1990 to 2005, 507,337 ha that is 3.2% of the Orinoco forest disappeared at an annual rate of 0.83%. Causes of deforestation in this region range from land use for agriculture, illicit crops, and mining to slope elevation. Like the Amazonia, the Orinoco is scarcely populated and has a small-scale agriculture (including illicit cropping), and cattle grazing. Deforestation is highly affected by both legal and illegal cropping, and by mining that negative impacts mountain forest at higher lands of the basin. Over the last 10 years the Orinoco along with the Amazonia has been subjected to greater pressures from bio-fuel companies.
Caribbean Deforestation
The Caribbean forest significantly has been transformed into an area of fragments of dry forest with pastures scarce of vegetation. During the fifteen-year period (1990-2005) 753,893 ha of forest were lost that is 5% of the Caribbean forest at an annual rate of 1.92%. In Colombia, cattle grazing productivity is the highest in this region, this practice plus its use of slash and burn activities influence deforestation. Land tenure and illicit cropping also prompt deforestation in this area. When land becomes scarce highland areas provide opportunity for agriculture expansion and forest removal. Three deforestation hotspots were found in the Caribbean: the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, San Lucas, and Perija, where slopes are wetter and steeper and flat land is occupied by cattle grazing or agricultural operations indicating that wetter and steeper municipalities had higher forest loss.
Pacific Deforestation
The Pacific is regarded as one of the wettest zones in the world holding an annual precipitation of 4,000 mm up to more than 10,000 mm in some areas, the climate ranges from humid to superhumid, the population is sparse, and this region is recognized as one of the world’s most biologically and culturally diverse areas composed by various Afro-Colombians, and indigenous peoples. In a fifteen-year period, the Pacific experienced one of the highest deforestation rate loss of 472,863 ha about 6.32% of forest loss at an annual rate of 0.42%. Logging has occurred in the region for decades, but over the last ten years, pressures from bio-fuel companies have intensified.
Andean Deforestation
The Andes is of particular interest because of its known importance as a biodiversity hot spot, as a provider of water to a grand human population, and its vulnerability to climate change and deforestation. The Andean forest stand as the second most fragmented natural habitat In Colombia. Recent causes of deforestation in this region has shifted to illicit crops and cattle grazing. From 2007–2010, 340,842 Ha of forest were lost, while 633 Ha of illicit crops and 225,279 Ha of pastures were added. The Deforestation rate of 0.67% found in the Colombian Andes is higher than the average deforestation rate reported for South American forests 0.38%. However, low lands in this region experience deforestation at higher rates than mountain lands because the population is mainly concentrated in mountain top areas. From 1990 to 2005 montane forests went from 7,335,125 ha to 6,405,591 ha (0.63%), and for lowland forest change from 3,671,768 ha to 3,123,369 ha (0.75%). Throughout the decades, deforestation in the Colombian Andean zone has only accelerated (Vina). By 1998, 69% of the Andean forest and 30% of the lowland Andean forests were cleared. In 2000 the remaining natural cover in Los Andes was 39%, that means that over 60% of its natural coverage has been lost and today this region continues to through natural resource extraction including exploitation, settlement and deforestation. Deforestation was mostly accounted to cropping 32% and cattle ranching activities for its remaining. In the montane forest deforestation was affected by land tenure of small parcels, road, water presence, and temperature. In the lowlands deforestation was associated with population, crops (licit and illicit), protected areas and temperature. The introduction of the oil industry in the 1990’s and its promise of high wages has generated deforestation and migration of local farmers who abandoned their pasture maintenance to enter the extraction industry.
Biodiversity Loss
Birds Loss in Los Andes
Colombia holds 18% of the world’s bird species. The Andes alone is one of the most diverse areas in the world. However, bird species specifically in the San Lucas Andean mountain ranges are endangered. The absence of government protection from armed conflict in San Lucas has facilitated the cultivation of coca crops and deforestation, which has resulted in local biodiversity loss. In some areas in the Western Andes concentrations of endemic threatened birds reached 46 species in certain areas. Neotropical birds especially from higher elevations are more prone to extinction. A study done in a 3000 ha reserve in Los Andes that conserves an extensive amount of endemic and small ranged bird species found 227 species in the region nine that pronounced threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature four of these are endemic species to Colombia: the Munchique Wood-wren, the Chestnut-bellied Flowerpiercer, the Yellow-eared Parrot, the Magdalena Tapaculo, the Bicoloured Antvireo, the Tanager Finch, the Ruddy Pigeon, the White-capped Tanager, and Red-bellied Grackle.
Wildlife Trafficking
The black market of animal trafficking is considered the second biggest threat to biodiversity in Colombia and the third most lucrative illegal enterprise. Colombia has a seventy-year history of animal smuggling, in some cases impoverished families from the country side amplify their income by selling mafia groups lizards, monkey, and parrots. International smuggling entities tend to be involved in the business of smuggling other trades because they are specialized in smuggling routes. Experts approximate that each year 6000,000 animals are illegally exported from Colombia, 200,000 of these are primates destined for laboratories and research centers. Colombian drug lords are known to have private zoos with endangered species engendering a demand of exotic creatures (Zimmerman, Moreno). Colombia has an animal trafficking policy of six months to three years of jail but no one has served such sentence. During the first months of 2012, enforcement officers rescued more than 46,000 animals including birds and reptiles heading for the illegal international trade.
Sloths
The biggest threat to sloth’s survival in Colombia is the destruction and fragmentation of their habitat. Three types of sloths’ species are distinguished in Colombia: the brown-throated three-toed sloth, Bradypus variegatus which inhabits the Pacific and Amazonian lowland rainforest and the Caribbean, the Hoffman’s two-toed sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni prevails in the north along with the B. variegatus, in the Pacific rainforest and the Caribbean savanna dry forest, but it is also found in Andean montane forest, and the southern two-toed sloth, Choloepus didactylus who is native in the south with B. variegatus, sharing the lowland Amazonian rainforest, but this specific species has been studied little in Colombia. Habitat for these species is limited primarily by the ongoing deforestation with in natural forest. The continuous expansion of agriculture, ranching, and urbanization are a direct threat to sloths’ survival. Frequently, sloths die in large numbers in accidents related to the destruction of natural forests that go underreported by the media and lack attention from wildlife agencies and police. All three-different species have a different rate and specific threat to their survival but collectively habitat loss – deforestation is pivotal. Deforestation facilitates the illegal trade of sloths as they are usually caught by young children who take them from deforested areas and sell them to traffickers. Poachers also take hundreds of young two-and three-toed sloths from their mothers. The Colombian Ministry does not recognize the three-sloth species as being in threat of extinction mainly because there is no long-term study that represents the estimate of the total sloth population to demonstrate cause of concern.
Air Pollution
Bogota
The capital of Colombia, Bogota, is the largest urban center of the country and one of the biggest city in Latin America as it contains 6.5 million people. Bogota also has the highest rate of air pollution in Colombia and it has surged most recently as a result of the expansion of cars in the city. Air pollution has been monitored in Bogota since 1967, but it was not until 1990 that monitors were widely spread through the city. A study conducted by the Secretary of Health of the District in collaboration with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) concluded that 70% of air pollution is attributed to vehicles, it was also identified that bricks, battery plants and others were crucial pollution sources as well. This study concluded a nexus between air pollution and respiratory health by relating air pollutants with the number of daily respiratory admissions. Statistics from the Secretary of Health demonstrated that between 1998 and 1999 about 9.6% of visits to hospitals were related to respiratory issues this percentage was higher for infant visits to the doctor associated to Acute Respiratory Illnesses 24.3%. Monitoring stations reveal that half of the areas with monitoring stations are surpass emission limits considered safe by the WHO, Particulate Matter (PM10) and ozone levels are the leading problem.
Medellin
Medellin is the second city in Colombia with the worst air quality, and within the city, Downtown Medellin is one of the most contaminated areas by car emissions. Low quality gasoline and diesel are considered a main source of air pollutants. Medellin’s shift toward urbanization, has increased the number of vehicles and thus extended the use of fossil fuels. Areas known for heavy traffic are monitored by meters that measure the amount of air pollution some of the sectors that have been recognized with the highest levels of pollution within the metropolitan area are: Itagüí-Ditaires, Politécnico Jaime Isaza-Cadavid, and Downtown Medellín (particularly the Miguel de Aguinaga building and San Antonio Park). Downtown Medellin’s pollution rates exceed the norm established by the WHO of being a risk to human health.
Government response
New environmental protection legislation was enacted in 1991, including the creation of specially protected zones, of which more than 200 were created in the early 1990s, mostly in forest areas and national parks. As a result of this charter, the Ministry of the Environment was established in 1993, merging with the housing and drinking water division of the Ministry of Economic Development, Housing, and Potable Water in 2003.