- In 2022, nearly 200 nations pledged to protect and conserve 30% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030 under Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
- Currently, 18% of land and inland waters, and 10% of marine and coastal areas are protected and conserved.
- Colombia, one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, has exceeded the global average, protecting and conserving 47% of marine and 26% of terrestrial areas.
- This has been achieved through new and expanded public and private protected areas, other area-based effective conservation measures (OECMs), and other means, including Heritage Colombia, an innovative “project for finance permanence” initiative.
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In 2022, at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada, 196 nations pledged to conserve 30% of land and inland waters, and 30% of marine and coastal areas, by 2030.
Popularly known as “30×30,” and officially known as Target 3, the pledge was one of 23 targets detailed in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and part of global efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. According to the GBF, the 30% target can be achieved through protection, connection and conservation of areas that are representative of a range of ecosystems, as well as key sites for biodiversity and ecosystem services. The framework also requires implementation to recognize and respect Indigenous and community territories and rights.
Two years later, the “Protected Planet Report 2024,” released to coincide with the most recent U.N. Biodiversity Conference, in Cali, Colombia, in 2024, provided the first evaluation of progress toward 30×30. It found that 17.6% of land and inland waters, and 8.4% of marine and coastal areas were protected or conserved. In a speech at the conference, Iger Anderson, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), said the report offered “glimmers of promise” but showed there was still “hard work to be done.”
Globally, those figures now stand at 18.43% and 9.97%, respectively. But progress is uneven.
Colombia, the host of the 2024 conference, is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries. The landscape is extremely varied, from Amazonian rainforest to Andean peaks, the plains of the Orinoco, Caribbean reefs and the Pacific coast. In all, it boasts nearly 2,000 bird species, more than any other country in the world, including 87 found nowhere else. It also ranks first in the number of orchid species (around 4,270), and second in plants, butterflies, freshwater fish and amphibians.
Moray eels (Gymnothorax dovii) in the Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary. Image by Yves Lefèvre © UNESCO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO).
In its 2024-2030 Biodiversity Action Plan, the government of Colombia went beyond the “30×30” goal, and pledged to protect and conserve 34% of terrestrial and marine areas by 2030, through protected areas, other area-based effective conservation measures (OECMs) and Indigenous, Afro-descendant and campesino territories.
Currently, Colombia has protected and conserved 47.4% of marine and coastal areas and 26.3% of land and inland waters, according to national and intergovernmental data. It accounts for eight of the 86 protected areas worldwide on the IUCN Green List, and has 331 protected areas with management effectiveness evaluations, covering more than half of the protected land and more than 85% of the protected marine area.
Heritage Colombia (HECO), launched in 2022 by the government of Colombia and a broad coalition of partners, is one of the primary initiatives through which the government is expanding its protected area network, says Carlos Mauricio Herrera, conservation director at WWF Colombia, a HECO partner. HECO uses a “project finance for permanence” (PFP) model to secure a binding agreement between project partners, and secured $245 million in funding. So far, around 19 million hectares (47 million acres) have been protected and conserved under the program, Herrera says. A number of large marine protected areas are among the first projects supported.
Protecting the Pacific
Five hundred kilometers off Colombia’s Pacific coast lies Malpelo Island, a barren chunk of basalt that’s the summit of an underwater mountain chain, the Malpelo Ridge, which rises 3,400 meters (11,155 feet) from the seafloor.
The 35-hectare (87-acre) island attracts hundreds of thousands of seabirds, including the world’s largest breeding colony of Nazca boobies (Sula granti).
With waters enriched by seabird guano and fed by numerous ocean currents, the underwater world attracts a cornucopia of marine life. Malpelo is considered one of world’s top diving sites, known for its dramatic underwater scenery of sheer cliffs and numerous caves, along with aggregations of hundreds of critically endangered scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) and silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis), as well as tuna, billfish and numerous other marine animals.
In 1995, the Malpelo Flora and Fauna Sanctuary was created to protect the island’s unique biodiversity. Originally only the island and surrounding water was protected, but as research revealed that a much larger area was critical for numerous species, including migratory sharks, the sanctuary was subsequently expanded numerous times. It now covers 48,151 square kilometers (18,591 square miles), an area larger than Switzerland.
The Malpelo sanctuary is the largest no-fishing zone in the eastern tropical Pacific, something research shows is “very important” for migratory species and fish stocks around the region, says Sandra Bessudo, founder and director of the Malpelo and Other Ecosystems Foundation, which has been conducting research into Malpelo’s biodiversity and advocating for marine protection since 1999.
Malpelo Island lies 500 kilometers (600 miles) from Colombia’s Pacific Coast. The island and surrounding waters were designated a Flora and Fauna Sanctuary in 1993. The protected area has been expanded numerous times, and now covers an area larger than Switzerland. Image by Betrand LAPLACE via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Though it’s challenging to patrol such a large area, and with illegal fishing an ongoing concern, monitoring shows that the increased zone of protection is benefitting numerous species, Bessudo says.
Also in 2022, the adjacent Yuruparí-Malpelo Integrated Management District was more than quadrupled to 123,710 km2 (47,765 mi2) and the nearby North Pacific Basin Submarine Hills and Mounds Integrated Management District was created, covering 27,611 km2 (10,661 mi2).
These integrated management districts allow for regulated fishing, but current practices are not sustainable, Bessudo says. Fishermen use longline fishing equipment and large nets to target tuna, and often snag sharks, turtles, dolphins and other species as bycatch.
“We know a lot of species are already in danger. We cannot continue to fish in the same way we are doing now,” Bessudo says.
Her research using baited cameras and environmental DNA has also identified key habitats within these zones, which she said she would like to see have a higher level of protection. In particular, the Navigator seamount within the Yuruparí-Malpelo Integrated Management District, is especially key for sharks and other species. Bessudo said she hopes that more data from ongoing expeditions will help garner this seamount a no-fishing-zone designation.
HECO has also supported the creation of protected areas in the Caribbean, including the roughly 33,125-km2 (12,790-mi2) Cordillera Beata Natural Reserve, and on land, the expansion of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Serranía de Chiribiquete national parks, and more.
A western mountain coati (Nasuella olivacea) female with young at La Ilusion Nature Reserve, Colombia. The western mountain coati, also known as “cusumbo solo” or “lonely coati” in Spanish, is endemic to the Andean mountains of Colombia and Ecuador, and listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Image by Natalia Laverde, Fundación El Bosque y La Niebla.
Involving civil society
In addition to national and regional protected areas, Colombia’s protected area system also includes areas co-managed by the government and Indigenous, Afro-Caribbean and other communities, Herrera says, and is working toward a category whereby Indigenous and other communities can independently manage protected and conserved areas.
Colombia has a long history of private protected areas, with civil society nature reserves recognized since 1993. These are privately owned areas voluntarily managed for conservation, and can be registered with the National System of Protected Areas (SINAP).
Currently there are more than 1,400 civil society nature reserves listed on Colombia’s national registry of protected areas, collectively covering 2,714 km2 (1,048 mi2). While many are very small, they have an outsized impact, says Herrera.
“It’s not like the big lands contributing to conservation, but it increases and promotes the participation of people in the management of biodiversity. So I think it’s a really interesting category that we have here in Colombia that’s been growing,” Herrera says.
And, while the conservation status is voluntary — and can be rescinded by the landowner — most stand the test of time, says Jorge Parra, deputy director of biodiversity at the Colombian office of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
More recently, a newer type of protected and conserved area, OECMs, has been gaining traction in Colombia. These are areas managed in a way that’s beneficial for biodiversity, even though conservation might not be the primary aim. And unlike with civil society nature reserves, these are an internationally recognized designation mentioned in Target 3.
With less land available for large, public, strictly protected areas, these private protected areas, along with other types of protected or conserved areas that allow for sustainable resource use, are a way forward, Parra says. They can also connect the larger protected or conserved areas, he adds.
“This is very important, because some analysis shows that connectivity is one of the huge issues … for the genetic flow of some species … functioning ecosystems in the future, etc.,” he says.
A regenerating cattle pasture in La Ilusion nature reserve, in 2008 and 2020. When Natalia Laverde and her husband bought the 45-hectare (111-acre) property in 2007, most of the land was heavily deforested, except for a 10-hectare (25-acre) remnant of mature cloud forest. Among the first things they did was exclude cattle, build relationships with their neighbors and learn all they could about how to regenerate the cloud forest. Image by Natalia Laverde, Fundación El Bosque y La Niebla.
Latin America’s first OECM
About a two-hour drive northwest of Bogotá, in La Ilusión Nature Reserve, the Andean forest is coming back to life.
When Natalia Laverde and her husband bought the 45-hectare (111-acre) property in 2007, most of the trees had previously been cleared. But about 10 hectares (25 acres) of mature cloud forest remained, a rare find in a landscape dominated by potato farming and cattle ranching.
“These remnants are like jewels, like emeralds in the landscape,” Laverde says.
Laverde and her husband knew they wanted to use that jewel to restore the rest of the land. Among the first things they did was get rid of the cattle by discontinuing grazing leases and reinforcing boundary fencing to stop livestock from wandering in. They also got to know their neighbors, and built the kind of relationships that lead to lasting change, she says.
Next they joined Resnatur, a Colombian association of private nature reserves. The association provided guidance on how to restore the cloud forest, through both natural regeneration and targeted planting, and connected them to more than a dozen other landowners in the catchment who were also voluntarily conserving land.
At first, Laverde and her husband were interested in registering their private reserve, La Ilusión, as a civil society nature reserve under SINAP, the national protected area network. But the paperwork was onerous, Laverde says.
Then, in about 2018, Laverde heard about a relatively new option. Resnatur, in collaboration with other agencies, was looking at how OECMs could work in Colombia, and she volunteered La Ilusión as a test case.
The process of going through the criteria was instructive, Laverde says, and helped her see how far they had come. She also liked the OECM concept, and its inclusive approach to conservation. “If we talk about only the fauna and fauna, we are taking the human factor out and the picture is not complete,” she says.
In 2022, La Ilusión was registered as an OECM on Protected Planet, the international database of protected and conserved areas, making it the first OECM registered in Latin America and the Caribbean. Laverde says the international recognition is heart-warming, and could be useful with funding for the reserve’s restoration and community outreach work, including with local youth.
“We are a tiny, tiny piece of land compared with others in Colombia and in the world,” Laverde says. “[But] it is always nice to see your initiative in a planetary concept.”
Mostly though, the reward has been seeing the forest come back, the wildlife return, and ripples spread through the community.
With the restoration work underway, Laverde and her husband have recorded 180 bird species at La Ilusión. Their camera traps have captured mammals like the oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), brown hairy dwarf porcupine (Coendou vestitus), a rare and largely unknown species, western mountain coati (Nasuella olivacea), puma (Puma concolor) and others.
An oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), also known as the northern tiger cat, photographed by a camera trap at La Ilusion. Globally, oncillas are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Image by Natalia Laverde, Fundación El Bosque y La Niebla.
Laverde says neighboring farmers have noted that as the cloud forest has flourished, the land retains more water and mountain springs are more reliable. People are also excited to see the wildlife return, and many are planting native tree seedlings, supplied by La Ilusión’s nursery, along their property perimeters, creating living fencing that will connect private nature reserves within the catchment area, allowing safe passage for wildlife.
“All the decisions that they are making about nature are because of this forest and the gifts that the forest is showing,” Laverde says.
Banner image: A brown hairy dwarf porcupine (Coendou vestitus), La Ilusion Nature Reserve, Colombia. The species is thought to be extremely rare and has only been recorded in a handful of locations, all in the Colombian Andes, with researchers suggesting an Endangered listing on the IUCN Red List. Image by Natalia Laverde, Fundación El Bosque y La Niebla.
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