Chiribiquete National Park declared as World Heritage Site, largest tropical rainforest

Saturday, July 7, 2018

After decades of efforts by environmental experts and conservationists Colombia’s Chiribiquete National Park has been named as the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It is Colombia’s last remaining national environmental treasures and the country’s largest national park which was expanded recently to approximately 4.3 million hectares. It spans across the Caqueta and the Guavaire departments of the northwestern region of Colombia’s Amazon forest.

In 1989 the area was declared as a national park and is now  named as Colombia’s ninth World Heritage Site along with Mompox and Cartagena’s Walled City.

The national park  houses a major portion of the country’s biodiversity, tepuis (Native American for table-top mountains) and sheer drops of sandstone plateau which is of the same length of the Eiffel Tower.

Anthropologists and director of  Fundación Herencia, Carlos Castaño Uribe described the park as the ‘centre of the world’.

The executive director of Foundation Herencia Cristal Angel commented on the newly-acclaimed status of the park that the foundation was very excited to be a part of the nomination process. It was a great responsibility for them to carry out the impeccable and highly-technical job and this was the third time Colombia presented nomination to UNESCO.

She further explained the suitability of the park as a World Heritage Site and the political will of the Colombian government to protect it in the best possible way. She felt proud to organize the first-class technical team which helps in knowing more about the nature and cultural values of Chiribiquete.

 
The new UNESCO World Heritage Site was earlier used for coca production and research was stunted here as it was  FARC stronghold which prevented the scientists from entering the area and conduct research.

The park is now home to around 300 species of birds, 313 butterfly species and it contributes almost 30% of the ecosystems of the Colombian Amazon  and 70% of the plant life.

Renowned biologists confirmed that with every expedition a new species was found here.  The park is also known to have 75,000 Native Amazonian paintings drawn into the sandstone which are still intact even after more than 20,000 years.

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