Los Katíos National Park

Coordinates: 7 ° 48 ′ 0 ″  N , 77 ° 9 ′ 0 ″  W Los Katíos is a national park in Colombia , South America , which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1994.

Between 2009 and 2015, the area was classified as endangered by UNESCO due to the ongoing deforestation in and on the borders of the national park. Furthermore, the area was endangered by the illegal clearing of precious woods and illegal fishing and hunting. Significant improvements in the management of the national park led the World Heritage Committee to remove the park from the red list of endangered world heritage in 2015 .

Los Katíos has an area of ​​720 km² and is located in northwestern Colombia in the north of the Chocó and Antioquia departments , between the border with Panama and the west bank of the Río Atrato in the area of ​​the municipalities of Riosucio and Unguía in Chocó and Turbo in Antioquia. The park also includes the Tumaradó wetlands east of the river and land between the Cacarica , Perancho and Peye rivers . In the north, Los Katíos is followed by the Panamanian Darién National Park .

meaning

The importance of Los Katíos lies in its exceptionally high biodiversity and the protection of species that only occur in the Darién region . Due to its geographical location in northern Colombia on the southern edge of the Central American land bridge, this region served as a filter for the change of animal species between North and South America in the Tertiary and Pleistocene . This process continues today. Los Katíos is the only region in South America that has Central American yew trees (taxus).

The park also serves to protect important landscape elements such as the 25 m high Tendal and the 100 m high Tilupo waterfalls and the Tumaradó swamps.

In 1990 the park was made accessible through paths and accommodations for small groups of visitors who have access to the national park through the park administration in Sautatá .

geography

The park extends between 50 and 600 m in height along the foothills of the Serranía del Darién and consists of a gently rolling hilly landscape. It essentially comprises two main regions, about half the mountain landscape of the Serranía del Darién in the west and the river landscape of the Atrato. The Atrato is the fastest flowing river on earth and pours 4900 m³ of water per second into the Caribbean Sea .

The average temperature within the park is 27 ° C and the annual precipitation of 2000–4500 mm is very high, so that the humidity is between 75% and 95%. The months of December to March have the lowest precipitation values.

history

The region was originally inhabited by the Kuna , an indigenous group who, after internal fighting , had to cede the Choco region to the Katío-Embera and migrated to Panama. The Darién region, to which Los Katíos also belongs, was historically important for the first settlers who used the land bridge from North to South America around 20,000 years ago. In the post-Columbian period it was the Spanish conquistadors Rodrigo de Bastidas , Alonso de Ojeda and Vasco Núñez de Balboa who were the first to discover this region in 1501.

More recently, around one percent of the park in the Sautatá area was developed for agriculture and was primarily used for growing sugar cane . After the park was established in 1974, the approximately 150 families living there were relocated to the nearby towns of Unguía , Puente América , Tumaradó and Cacarica over the next seven years .

Vegetation and wildlife

Lowland swamp forests cover about half of the park, while the other half is covered by tropical mountain rainforests . The Caesalpinie Cativo reaches heights of up to 50 m, and in the tropical forest Ceiba petandra , Cavanillesia platanifolia and Hura crepitans are mainly found. In 1993, 669 plant species were identified in the park, 20-25% of which are endemic ; H. occur only in this region.

Los Katios hosts a number of animal species that are characteristic of Central America, found in South America only in this region, such as the mouse Heteromys desmarestianus and Graukopfguan Ortalis cinereiceps , also endangered species like the American crocodile Crocodylus acutus , the bush dog venaticus Speothos , the Great anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla and the Central American tapir Tapirus bairdii .

Web links

• Park website (Spanish)
• Entry on the UNESCO World Heritage Center website ( English and French ).

source

• Protected Areas Program (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System and Colombia's Los Katios National Park enter UNESCO's Danger List June 27, 2009 (English)
2. ↑ Colombia's Los Katíos National Park removed from List of Heritage in Danger June 30, 2015 (English)