Bioconservancy
The northwest Andes of Colombia was identified as an area of utmost importance for protection and restoration after Rapid Assessment expeditions were done to identify strategic areas for conservation in 2006. Currently, over 7,700 acres (3,500-ha) of forests are being protected at the Mesenia-Paramillo nature reserve. The Mesenia-Paramillo nature reserve is the main watershed of the San Juan Antioquia, San Juan Bravo Chocó and Dojurgo rivers, the latter being a main tributary of the San Juan Antioquia river. Located in the Important Bird Area (IBA CO-0024) and Key Biodiversity Area (KBA COL11) and anchors three important conservation districts: Cuchilla del San Juan, Cuchilla Jardín-Támesis and Farallones de Citará.
The nature reserve has forests located in three states: Antioquia, Risaralda and Caldas. This was the first conservation project established by BIOCONSERVANCY (formerly The Hummingbird Conservancy) which began in 2008. Protecting cloud forests and subparamo vegetation from 1,700m to 3,167m (5,600 ft to 10,450 ft) on both slopes of the western Andes, the biodiversity value of this area is outstanding.
Given the great biological wealth found in the area of the reserve, we have dedicated a large part of our efforts to carrying out studies and inventories of biodiversity. To accomplish this, we have contacted scientists and students belonging to universities and institutes, both national and international. Several groups of vertebrates, invertebrates and plants have been studied.
Birds have been the most studied group of vertebrates so far. Over 20% of all bird species found in Colombia inhabit the Mesenia-Paramillo nature reserve. There are 30 IUCN threatened and 26 endemic or restricted-range bird species at the reserve, making this area one of the most critical habitats for birds in all of the Americas. A total of 410 bird species have been recorded and most are included in our bird guide (PDF accesible below).
Mammalian studies have also been done with the participation of students from the University of Antioquia, lead by Professor Sergio Solari. In 2013, the first carnivore species to be discovered in the Western hemisphere in 35 years, Baciricyon neblina, known as Olinguito was photographed at the reserve in 2011. Over 30 camera traps have been placed strategically to "capture" various species. So far 55 species of non-flying mammals in 22 families have been detected. Several articles have been published led by Juan Camilo Cepeda, specially about the threatened Andean Tiger Cat (Leopardus tigrinus). Additionally, other enigmatic mammals such as the Colombian Weasel (Neogale felipei) have also been studied.
Amphibians and reptiles have been researched with Adolfo Amezquita, our Science Director, where 45 species of the former and 50 of the latter have been found and additionally a significant number of new species, 10 and 8, respectively, have been discovered. Three frog species been published published so far: a poison-dart-frog, Andinobates cassidyhornae, and two Pristimantis, P. ferwerdai and P. postducheminorum. Seven more Pristimantis and one Rhaebo will be described. Three lizards of the Pholidobolus genera have been described and Anadia hollandi sp. nov. has been published. In order to streamline the identification of new species, a molecular lab has been established at the reserve.
Regarding invertebrates, over 2,000 species of moths have been registered at the field station. It has been no easy task to identify these species and we expect to generate a PDF catalog of the species photographed in 2024 .
We are also working on the identification of Darwin Wasps (Ichneumonidae) and Spider Wasps (Pompilidae) with a group of researchers from Brazil: Rodrigo Araujo, Bernardo Santos, Diego Padua, Daniell Rodrigues and Eduardo Fernando Dos Santos. In this two families we have already found a significant number of new species. Five scientific articles have already been published describing five new species of Dolichomitus (Pimplinae), new records for Colombia of the Anomalonine subfamily, Filling the gaps of the Colombian Darwin Wasps, Synopsis of Lusius and Revisiting the Darwin Wasp genus Epelaspis describing 5 new species.
Regarding plants, the main study groups has been the orchids and anthuriums. Nearly 100 species of the former and 130 of the latter have been identified at the reserve. Recently an important discovery was made of a new Dracula orchid. Named after Irmelin Indenbirken, mother of philantropist Leonardo DiCaprio, Dracula irmelinae was confirmed as being a new species for science. Additionally, over 200 species of Araceae were recently collected at the reserve by a group of national and international botanists. Thomas Croat, world renowned Araceae expert, is currently describing many new species found. More info on the following link:
https://www.hummingbirdconservancy.org/post/july-2021-anthuriums-aroids-galore-the-araceae-mpnr
One of our main objectives is to rebuild connectivity between forest fragments, focusing on those areas with water sources. Therefore, we are restoring 566 hectares of pasturelands (Verra Certified for carbon credits) to create corridors that allow for wildlife populations to mobilize, in addition to generating greater water wealth in the San Juan de Antioquia river basin. The assisted restoration will require some 1 million native trees to provide a solid base for pastures to be colonized by natural plant species. Tree nurseries have been built by families of the La Mesenia village and will be tended mainly by women. These will be an important source of income for the families that participate in the project.
Since 2020, BIOCONSERVANCY has taken on the challenge of estimating global diversity values that do not depend entirely on species recognition and that also allow estimating the value of a conserved area in terms of the environmental services it provides. We use a multispectral drone allowing us to estimate forest cover, as well as cover of low-density forest, shrubs and grasses. Also, in the environmental gradient generated by the quantified degrees of forest restoration, the extraction, amplification, and sequencing of over 1 million soil DNA sequences confirmed the presence of more than 1,800 genera of bacteria. With this information, we can not only estimate diversity indices, but also classify them by the functional role in tree growth and soil maturation. In parallel, the deployment of automatic sensors for light, temperature, and humidity allowed observing how the presence of mature cloud forests reduces both maximum temperatures and temperature fluctuation by a value between 1 to 3 degrees Celsius (1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), facilitating the survival of rare species. We can quantify the value of cloud forests in maintaining higher values of relative humidity and estimate the percentage of time the forest captures water from horizontal precipitation. Furthermore, the deployment of automatic recorders with sensitivity up to 96 kHz allowed estimating diversity indices of acoustically active organisms, including bats, crickets, birds, and amphibians. This approach allows evaluating contained biodiversity without requiring the individual identification of the species involved. Finally, the use of camera traps allowed comparing the methods we integrated in a novel way with the most commonly used method for valuing biodiversity. Two advantages of our approach are already clear: the amount of available data exceeds by several orders of magnitude that obtained with traditional methods, and we are now able to quantify some of the environmental services provided by both pristine ecosystems and those under restoration.