ECO-TOURISM / NATIONAL PARKS IN COLOMBIA

Colombia disposes of more than 42 declared national reserves with an area of more than 9 million hectares under the Natural National Parks System protection. This area corresponds to a good 9% of the country´s total surface area. Hence, Colombia belongs to the 10 richest countries in the world in terms of natural reserves andbio-diversity.

In Colombia, that make up less than 1% of the planet’s total surface, can be found more than 10% of varieties existing flora and animal life.
To illustrate the former, here we have some examples:

Colombia is, after Brazil, the second richest country in plant species, the richest one in orchids, palms and birds (19,4 % of the varieties existing on earth, 1754 in total, live in Colombia, while in the whole of Africa there are only 15%).

Colombia is also the second richest country in amphibian animals and third one in reptiles…. in general terms, a gigantic concentration of wild life and exotic species.  

Parallel to conservation and protection of flora and animal life, national parks fulfill another very important mission: they constitute the habitat of more than 87 ethnically indigenous groups; totalling more than 500 thousand people. Their way of life, in harmony with nature, is the best reaon that can be given for the conservation of these territories. But this immense wealth in natural resources, brings some problems with it. Although the government is conscious of its responsibility and legislation concerned with conservation is very progressive, these great efforts aren´t sufficient. As an example, Colombia loses every five years an average of 100.000 km2 of forest, due to extremely dry soils and lack of water; in spite of the facts that Colombia is one of the countries with the greatest hydrographic richness of fresh water in the whole world and four fifths of the country´s territory receive precipitations that annually reach between 3.000 and 12.000 cubic metres. Nevertheless, national parks are the ideal way to educate and inform people about environmental protection, and perhaps as a result of this, eco-tourism acquires more significance every day in Colombia.

Frequently, getting to national parks is difficult and time consuming, because they are located in territories that are difficult to access. However,  the journey to the national parks is an experience in itself, and the arrival makes it all worthwhile.

To visit a national park, it is necessary to have a special permit from the Ministry of the Environment. Naturally we apply for your permit before your arrival.

If you wish to know about an area that we haven’t included in our catalogue, please send us a Fax or E-mail and we will be able to prepare you a non-binding proposal.