It was under President Iván Duque’s watch that the former Colombian leader declared 30% of the country’s ocean territory a protected area, and recognized among the global community as the first Western nation to enforce an ambitious conservation agenda of marine ecosystems. As an advocate on climate change action, included in a list of national park land expansion, President Duque petitioned UNESCO to include a large swath of the Chocó’s biogeographic region in its Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme.
On Thursday, UNESCO approved the designation of 10 new biospheres reserves in 9 countries, including Colombia’s sixth contribution to the world network, known as the Tribugá-Cupica-Baudó Biosphere Reserve. With the latest additions, UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves totals 748 sites in 134 countries, including 23 transboundary sites.
The Tribugá-Cupica-Baudó is the first biosphere reserve to be situated on the Pacific coast of Colombia, which is one of the two large biomes along the litoral. The other is the tropical rainforest of the Serranía del Baudó. The biosphere contains a variety of landscapes (cliffs, estuaries, coastlines, gulfs, inlets, bays and marine areas) and ecosystems (reefs, mangroves, tropical forest) rich in biodiversity.
The region is also home to a population of 18.000, the majority of whom are members of the Indigenous groups Embera, Katio, and Afro-Colombian peoples. The main economic activities for local communities is subsistence agriculture, artisanal fishing, traditional fishing and resource utilization, trade, nature tourism and handicrafts like pottery and woven baskets.
The new recognition is added to others that exist in the area, such as two areas of the National System of Protected Areas: Utría National Natural Park and the Tribugá-Cabo Corrientes Gulf Integrated Management Regional District. Colombia also designated along the Pacific coast, the Exclusive Zone for artisanal fishing. The Chocó rainforest covers 2.3% of the Earth surface and its rich biodiversity includes over 1,500 endemic plants, as well as animal species under threat of extinction.
