The principal objective of the project “Integrated Biodiversity Management in Exemplar Regions of Colombia” (ColBioDiv) is to provide the scientific basis for biodiversity management as an integral part of sustainable research. The two model regions are the Andean region around the capital Bogotá and the hinterland of Barranquilla. The natural vegetation of large parts of the research areas is Andean mountain ecosystems (Bosque Altoandino and Páramo) near Bogotá and tropical dry forest (Bosque Seco Tropical) in the Department Atlántico. These ecosystems are under high pressure due to fragmentation, climate change as well as human and agricultural activities.

This transdisciplinary project is a cooperation between researchers from the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, the Institute of Geographical Sciences and the Institute for Latin American Studies of the FU Berlin as well as the Botanical Garden José Celestino Mutis in Bogotá, the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla and the Instituto Humboldt in Colombia.

The project consists of four work packages, where Work Package III is landscape sensitivity assessment, which is largely covered by geographical scientists. Nevertheless, there are strong interactions between the various Work packages and related participants from different scientific disciplines.

Andean part (PhD project N. Anselm)

In the Andean model region (drainage basin of the Rio Bogotá) the focus is on water and water availability for the metropolitan area of Bogotá. Within several working steps I) the trends and causes for land use and land cover change, II) the precipitation distribution, availability, the topographical and ENSO impacts on it and III) runoff characteristics for the Sabana de Bogotá are investigated. These steps are used for a numerical estimation of the drainage basin to draw future development scenarios.

Caribbean part (PhD project H. Schubert)

In the Caribbean model region the focus is on analysing the relation between landscape sensitivity, soil erosion risk and land use/land cover changes at various scales. While at the regional scale we investigate the trends and causes for land use and land cover change in the Department Atlántico, is the focus of the local scale a comparative analysis of the natural resource management and the soil erosion risk of the communities El Morro in the municipality Tubará and the regional protected area El Palomar in the municipality Piojó.

Topographic overview of Colombia with the two model regions

The agricultural use (image center – mainly potato plantation and pasture) supersedes the natural paramó vegetation (foreground, i.a. Espeletia hartwegiana), which is of tremendous importance for the metropolitan area of Bogota due to their water retention capacities

Patchwork of tropical dry forest and agricultural areas in El Palomar, Piojó, Atlántico.

Caribbean part of the COLBIODIV project (Prof. Andrés Vargas Pérez, Prof. Dr. Brigitta Schütt, Dr. Markus Rauchecker, Henry Schubert, Astrid de Mestier, Dr. Grischa Brokamp, Prof. Dr. Marianne Braig, Prof. Francisco Velásquez Puentes, Oscar Rojas Zamora; (missing: Prof. Marcela Celis Pacheco).