GC Mission to Los Katios National Park, Colombia

Introduction 

On March 1, 2022, Global Conservation led a second mission for further assessment of Los Katíos National Park, Colombia. Director of South America, Margoth Quispe, met with Officials of Colombia National Parks, where a commitment was made to sign an MOU and deploy and test initial steps of Global Park Defense for effectiveness in Los Katíos. Global Conservation will assist in protection against illegal logging, land clearing, and wildlife poaching within the park, as well as economic development for surrounding local communities.

Los Katíos lies on the southeastern edge of the Darién Gap, the thickly forested area on the border between Colombia and Panama that is infamous for its lawlessness. This region has long suffered from violence between the Colombian government, paramilitary armies, and guerilla forces (like FARC and ELN); neglect of the local communities by the faraway Colombian government; and intensive illegal activities, such as drug and human trafficking.

Although the Colombian Civil War has smoldered on continuously since 1964, Colombia has been far safer and more welcoming for international visitors since the early 2000s. 

Once off-limits to tourists, the formerly FARC-controlled northwestern corner of the country is now ripe for tourism and eager for international support for protecting its natural treasures. And these treasures are many: Colombia has 1,826 bird species, the highest diversity of any country on the planet.

3,500 orchid species also occur here, and in the past ten years, the government has almost tripled the area of officially protected lands, from 13 million hectares in 2010 to 38 million hectares in 2018, with plans to continue expanding protected areas in the next year. 

Los Katíos is the only protected area in this part of Colombia, a refuge for species that may otherwise go extinct. It sprawls across 72,000 hectares of forests and wetlands and shares a border with the 575,000-hectare Darién National Park in Panama. Because of its biogeographical position on the southern end of the Isthmus of Panama, the Darién’s dense forests have filtered the exchange of plants and animals between South and Central America.

Populations were stranded and isolated on the Darién’s mountaintops as sea levels rose and fell, resulting in an astonishing number of endemic species, found nowhere else in the world. One in every five plants here is unique to the Darién. Thousands of species of animals and plants likely remain undiscovered, shrouded by the thick jungle.

Bisecting Los Katíos is the Atrato River, the wellspring for a number of important and biodiverse wetlands. The park’s diverse habitats – from hilly forests to low-lying floodplains – offer an incredible wealth of plant and animal species. Los Katíos is a birder’s paradise, containing 450 bird species – or 25% of all bird species of Colombia – in just 1% of its area, including endemics like the grey-headed chachalaca (Ortalis cinereiceps).

The park also contains some of the highest diversities of amphibians, reptiles, and freshwater fish in the world. Other notable wildlife includes capybaras, ocelots, giant anteaters, howler monkeys, harpy eagles, caimans, American crocodiles, and jaguars. In fact, the Chocó-Darién region, where Los Katíos lies, has been identified as one of seven places in the world with the greatest potential to sustain jaguar populations in the long term.

Scouting Mission to Los Katíos

In March 2021, we went on a mission to Los Katíos to determine the potential for a Global Park Defense Program to protect against illegal land clearing, logging, and hunting. The Park is accessed by river via the small town of Turbo, where the park office is located. It takes about 3 hours from Turbo via the Atrato River to reach the Main Ranger Field Base in Suatata. Here’s what we discovered:

Primary threats to Los Katíos

1.     Poaching.

Mammals are poached inside Los Katíos, primarily for food. Bird poaching is an issue both for sale and consumption. Two endemic turtle species, the Colombian slider turtle and the critically endangered Magdalena river turtle, are hunted for consumption by setting fires to drive the animals into certain areas.

In addition to threatening the turtles themselves, this practice often results in out-of-control forest fires that may burn many hectares. However, this is a difficult practice to halt, as turtle hunting is deeply rooted in the cultures of this region.

Tumaradó, fishing village at the edge of Los Katíos.

2.     Illegal fishing.

Fish are usually sold in Turbo. In some cases, families are allowed up to 5 nets, which when set in succession can span 750 meters. Because overfishing has severely depleted fish stocks in the area, this method is sometimes necessary just to meet their daily legal quota, and is no longer a sustainable, year-round source of income for some communities.

3.     Illegal Logging.

Though Colombia has maintained about 50% of its natural forest cover, making up 6% of the world’s forests, deforestation is a major problem. 20-40% of total timber production in Colombia is illegal. One cubic meter of legally extracted wood can cost $375.00. The same volume of illegally extracted wood costs around $200.00.

Much of the large-scale timber is extracted using false permits and sent to markets in China. Smaller operations use the many waterways to float logs out. Two recent military checkpoints in the communities have detoured some of the large-scale commercial operations. Reviving two damaged remote outposts on the Cacarica River could increase arrests for illegal logging. Already, most mahogany trees have been removed from the Darién region.

4.     Burning.

Fires have been an increasing threat recently in Los Katíos. Unnatural fires can mostly be attributed to two causes: burning to clear the land for cultivation, and fires set to drive out turtles and other wildlife to the riverbank for poaching.

5.     Poverty.

This is a major driver of environmental degradation, especially amongst the Afro-Colombian fishing communities within the park and the surrounding area. These communities lack basic resources. The only source of income is fishing, and the competition is fierce. A dwindling fish population, due to overfishing as well as an old dam put in place many years ago for a logging operation, has had an extremely adverse effect on local fishing communities.

They lack the means and resources to produce clean drinking water, so all drinking water is store-bought bottled water brought in via boat from Turbo. They have no real means for recycling or waste disposal, so much of the plastic and waste ends up either burned or in the river. There is limited cell service and no internet access.

The constant burden of poverty makes communities vulnerable to resorting to illegal activity for survival. The absence of basic resources and assistance causes a lack of trust, among some communities, in government and NGOs due to a lack of programs or early program abandonment.

6.     Development and land-use change.

The Pan-American Highway has long loomed over the Darién region as a potential ecological disaster. The Darién “Gap” is so named because it is a gap in this highway, and the completion of this section has been shelved several times due to environmental concerns.

However, some interests continue to push for its construction. When the highway was extended south in Panama in recent decades, deforestation spread like wildfire along both sides of the road. If this project were to move forward, it would inevitably result in high levels of deforestation, the fragmentation of this vast block of forest, and the invasion of potentially ecologically harmful species, like the coyote, which has thus far been blocked from spreading into South America by the dense Darién forests.

Economic Opportunities

Potential for Carbon for Forests Financing

As part of this pilot, Global Conservation aims to secure adjacent high-biodiversity lands to nearly double the national park's size, while developing Carbon for Forests financing for long-term, sustained park and wildlife protection. This will be similar to the $6 million secured from Shell Oil for Cardamom  World Heritage Site to protect 6,450,000 hectares of critical wildlife and elephant habitat in Cambodia.

Tourist lodging in Tumaradó.

Ecotourism

Tourism is viable though challenging, and currently nonexistent. However, there is great potential. The new Director General of Colombia National Parks is focused on increasing tourism. 

Several local communities understand the importance of conserving their natural resources and are eager to find alternative means of supporting their economies. The communities of Tumaradò and Puente Amèrica, located along the edge of the protected area, have an established relationship with the parks department and welcome support in building tourism. 

One of the hurdles will be how to ensure financial benefits to the communities for ecotourism.

Potential ecotourism opportunities:

1. Lagoons. There are 3 beautiful lagoons that could be a great location for a floating lodge and bungalow design, ideal for bird watching. 
2. Day trips for Bird Watching. Another option is to run day trips out of Turbo. You would need to scout locations for potential Viewing Structures or Floating Platforms and purchase a couple of boats to shuttle tourists. 
3. Ecolodge at the Main Base site. There is enough land here to build a small ecolodge. There are also a few existing outbuildings that could be remodeled or possibly added on to make an ecolodge. There is a trail just steps away that leads to amazing waterfalls and swimming holes. The trail needs maintenance but is wide enough to support ATV’s, UTV’s, and possibly a small transport vehicle.
4. Existing Community Lodges. There was a program with the EU that provided an ecolodge structure, remote internet, and a small solar power system, but the project has since been terminated and neither the solar nor internet is currently functioning in either community. This option would involve remodeling and improving existing lodging facilities. 

However, the greatest obstacle to protecting Los Katíos and developing tourism is the existence of coca production and cartel operations deep within park boundaries, bolstered by government corruption. While cartel activity is currently contained in undeveloped and unpatrolled areas, rangers keep their distance for fear of retaliation; cartel members are militarized while rangers are not.

GC will assist in strengthening communications between park rangers and the military for effective response against cartel threats. The military has bases directly across and near multiple ranger posts. The potential for rangers to pressure cartel operations out of Los Katíos with the aid of the military will be further assessed after the initial trial of GPD in the next two years.

First Steps in Launching Global Park Defense

1. Meeting with Park Directors

GC Director of South America, Margaret Quispe, discussing park needs with Director-General Orlando Molano.

Global Conservation’s Director of South America, Margoth Quispe, discussed the mutual conservation goals with Officials from National Parks, Colombia. Global Conservation’s role and capacity to aid the park were outlined, and a commitment to sign a formal Memorandum of Understand to test initial steps of GPD within Los Katios was made, with the official signing to be held in April of this year.

GC team and parks officials.

2. Equipment Donation

To take patrolling to the next step, Global Conservation delivered the following equipment to the Los Katíos team in the first round of donations on March 1st:

• 2 Garmin GPS radio units
• 6 Blackview cell phones and 2 computers for SMART patrolling
• Noncellular camera traps to gather data on scarcely patrolled areas
• Binoculars
• A new generator for the main base (Sautata)
• Motorized Blade Trimmer for maintaining trails

Donated equipment.

3. Training

Global Conservation was happy to find that the National Parks Department is a step ahead and already trained in and utilizing SMART software in their patrols.  We will continue to aid in refining the platform to best suit Los Katíos individual needs as more data is collected on high threat areas using the newly donated equipment.

Rangers will be further trained to best utilize the software and will expand their recording area from only within park boundaries to further include observations made outside of the park while commuting between Turbo and Los Katíos.  

Park rangers using SMART patrolling in the field.

4. Understanding Community Needs

Global Conservation and Head of Protected Areas, Nancy Murillo, met with local communities Tumaradò (Unguia, Choco) and Puente Amèrica (Riosucio Choco) and their leaders to better understand their needs and to forge relationships for future work in developing eco-tourism. 

Elias Valoyes, community leader and legal representative of Tumaradó.

Next Steps:

• Use Garmin InReach to mark cell coverage boundaries
• Set Camera traps around Peye, Palon, and Limón to gather information about traffic in the area to modify patrol routes
• Establish a boat radio or set line of comms with military and main HQ via Garmin InReach

Perancho ranger base.

Bases:

• Rehabilitate damaged base at Perancho, rebuild its water tower, and provide comms
• Clear entrance at Sautata and back trail for patrolling and tourism to the waterfalls (now possible with newly donated bladed trimmer)
• Argo Utility Vehicle would solve entrance issues immediately and allow for clearing trails
• Provide temporary Tent Base and water container at teardown location

Local children playing in the river.

Community:

• Implement a results-based reward system for information leading to arrests
• Provide a large boat and dumping fees for a clean-up day in two communities
• Reconnect satellite internet
• Provide one Garmin InReach or radio for each community
• A fishing agreement amongst the communities and the government exists and a modernized version will be signed in the coming months. Members from three communities currently assist in the regulation of fishing practices and the new agreement should bring in more regulators.

Long term goals:

• Fully deploy Global Park Defense systems, equipment and training
• Ecotourism Center with Lodging (2 star) for Birders, visitors for economic development and sustainable funding for park
• Village Improvements - Housing, School, Clinic, Sanitation
• Strengthen relationship between Rangers and Military

With Global Park Defense, the park authority and ranger teams will have increased capacity and improved effectiveness to greatly improve park and wildlife protection, law enforcement, and biodiversity monitoring. Our goal is to achieve ‘No, Cut, No Kill’ protection for the national park within 5-6 years.

Los Katíos park entrance.