Santos expands protection of Colombia’s PNN Chiribiquete

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Pictograms in the Chiribiquete National Park.
Pictograms in the Chiribiquete National Park.

It remains one of Colombia’s most hidden natural wonders and unexplored terrain for anthroplogists. This unchartered frontier of narrow canyons and forest-covered plateaus at the heart of the Caquetá and Guaviare departments is known as the Chiribiquete, and a national park since August 2013. Covering more than 27,800-square km, the PNN Chiribiquete is also nation’s largest park of the 58 currently protected.

President Juan Manuel Santos stated back in 2013 that the enlargement of the Chiribiquete is aimed at preserving “life, sustainability and the well-being of the Colombian people and humanity.”

The decision to enlarge the park came after the Colombian government attended an international environmental summit. For Environment Minister Juan Gabriel Uribe, the importance of Chiribiquete is its incredibly rich and delicate biodiversity; and which will be protected from illegal mining and logging.

Almost three times the size of Yellowstone National Park, the Chiribiquete is home to 240 species of fish, 492 birds and some 900 plants. According to Colombia’s Academy of Exact Sciences, Physical and Natural, the Chiribiquete is an immense biosphere, which sustains life and has the capacity to offset the nation’s carbon emissions footprint.

Given its strategic location towering over two of Colombia’s main coca producing departments, Guaviare and Caquetá, the Chiribiquete has been rumored to be one of the command and control centers of the country’s oldest guerilla force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC. Given its treacherous mountains, raging gorges and hard to find camps, visitors to the natural park have been few and far between. Even the most intrepid of anthropologists and botanists have needed to resort to the cavernous guerrillas for safe passage through this pristine parkland.

With the on-going peace talks in Havana, Cuba, between FARC representatives and the government negotiators, the expansion of the PNN Chiribiquete comes at a time when it might be possible for visitors to venture with specialized tour companies into the area. For scientists, there are huge untapped possibilities for the expansion of research into rare mammals and reptiles, including the discovery of poison frogs, jaguars and parrots.

The Chiribiquete has impressive waterways such as the Apaporis and Caquetá, which meander, from the Andes foothills towards the Amazon basin. The area is also the ancestral territory of the Carib, known for being fierce warriors and hunters. Today, there are traces of this ancient and lost culture as witnessed by many brightly-painted hieroglyphs on rock formations, and dating as far back as 12,000 B.C.

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