In southern Colombia, in a strategic corridor between Huila and Putumayo, a major project has been undertaken to preserve two of the most threatened species in the country: the Andean bear and the mountain tapir.
Two community monitoring groups were created about ten years ago, and they have structured plans and implemented actions to preserve and protect them, with assistance from regional environmental authorities and NGOs that specialize in this area.
Grupo Energía Bogotá has decided to join their efforts, because we cross this southwestern region of the country with the high-voltage lines for the Ecuador Interconnection, Jamondino-Mocoa; we are also building the Mocoa-Renacer Project.
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members of volunteer monitoring groups participated in preparing the manual. They are members of organizations including Reverdecer Laboyano, Corporación Mashiramo, Red Ambiental Tierra y Semilla, Grupo Ambiental Alto Yuma, Ecotupales, Fundación Cerca Viva, Respira Macizo, Antaguara, Red de Reservas de la Sociedad Civil Serankwa, Huella del Macizo and the offices of the mayors of Palestina and Pitalito.
“It is a priority for our Company to assist and promote these initiatives as part of our Sustainability Policy and our cultural attributes of Life Comes First and Social Awareness, which prioritize the communities that live in the areas of influence of our assets and the environment where we carry out our operations,” explains Alejandro Giraldo Castañeda, Transmission environmental manager.
We also sponsor the development of a Manual for community monitoring of the Andean bear and the mountain tapir, in partnership with the environmental authority Corporación Autónoma Regional del Alto Magdalena (CAM) , the Southern Amazon environmental authority (Corpoamazonia, for the Spanish original), the community monitoring groups and Fundación Wii.
This tool, Giraldo Castañeda explains, is a scientific document that presents in a simple but methodical manner (the community groups participated in its development through workshops) the reasons why monitoring should be carried out, the signs of presence of these species, what to look for and how to record the data, among other key topics.
With all this information, the environmental authorities, the communities and the NGOs structure and implement activities for the conservation of the Andean bear and the mountain tapir.
To complement the manual, at GEB, we designed the table game “the Andean bear and the mountain tapir”, through which everyone can learn more about the habitat of these animals, how to care for them and the threats they face. We use these communications tools for school environmental programs in the territories.
Daniel Rodríguez, from the Foundation for Research, Protection and Conservation of the Andean Bear (Wii), says that “GEB’s contribution to this project not only helps to protect the animals, but is also fundamental for the communities, to encourage them to continue to work on this and to feel that their voluntary work is valuable and important.”
On his part, Giraldo Castañeda believes that the Group goes beyond ensuring strict compliance with environmental regulations, by understanding that biodiversity supports the food production systems, the nutrition and health of human beings.
“Beyond building and operating electricity transmission lines and gas pipelines, the Group’s strategy is leveraged by supporting, promoting, implementing and documenting experiences that clearly demonstrate that the electricity infrastructure can coexist with biodiversity in highly sensitive ecosystems, throughout the national territory,” added the Group’s environmental manager.
