Conservation International Colombia

CI Colombia has supported watershed-focused conservation and restoration planning in the Bogotá Region, including work on a corridor-scale landscape linking the Chingaza and Sumapaz areas developed with Bogotá's water utility and partners and framed around biodiversity and water-related ecosystem services. In the Colombian Amazon and adjacent Andes-Amazon transition region, programme activities have included a community-engagement platform at the Centro Ambiental La Pedrera in Amazonas, participation in Naturamazonas initiatives in the Andean-Amazon foothills, an ecological restoration project with Siona communities in Puerto Asís (Putumayo), and participation in the Pacto HYLEA Andean-Amazon corridor initiative in Huila. Marine and coastal activities have included engagement in policy discussions related to shark conservation and fisheries management measures affecting coastal communities. On Colombia's Pacific coast, the programme has supported community-led retrieval of abandoned fishing gear (ghost gear) from nearshore ecosystems, including in the Gulf of Tribugá. == History ==

Conservation International began activities in Colombia on 19 December 1991. By 2016, Herencia Colombia was referenced among efforts to strengthen long-term financing for Colombia's protected areas system. == Programmes and operations ==

Bogotá and Bogotá Region In the Bogotá Region, CI Colombia has supported watershed-focused conservation and restoration planning with Bogotá's water utility and partners, including work on the Chingaza-Sumapaz-Guerrero conservation corridor and related action guidelines framed around biodiversity and water-related ecosystem services. Within the corridor landscape, CI Colombia has participated in a climate-adaptation project launched in 2025 focused on high-mountain ecosystems and water sources supplying the Bogotá Region, with initial work including ecological restoration and climate and biodiversity monitoring. Technical notes produced as part of an adaptation project and developed jointly with CI Colombia provided recommendations for including climate-change management and climate variability in municipal land-use planning, including fichas for Guasca (Cundinamarca) and San Juanito (Meta). Ecosystem-based adaptation approaches in the Chingaza Massif have been linked to water regulation and climate vulnerability for Bogotá, including conservation and restoration actions intended to maintain ecosystem services associated with water supply and regulation. In Bogotá, CI Colombia has participated with Bogotá's district environment secretariat and the Usaquén local development fund in implementing a social participation strategy intended to involve social and institutional actors in creek-recovery actions in the locality of Usaquén. Huila (Andes-Amazon transition) In Huila, CI Colombia has participated in the Pacto HYLEA Corredor Andino Amazónico initiative, described as a multi-actor alliance linked to forest restoration, wildlife monitoring and sustainable production in a landscape-connectivity corridor. Naturamazonas has been described as an initiative in the Andean-Amazon foothills with activities in departments including Putumayo, Caquetá, Cauca, Meta and Guaviare and structured around components such as knowledge generation, sustainable production and institutional coordination. Caribbean and Pacific coasts On Colombia's Caribbean and Pacific coasts, CI Colombia has participated in national discussions related to shark conservation and fisheries measures affecting coastal communities. On Colombia's Pacific coast, CI Colombia has supported community-led retrieval of abandoned fishing gear (ghost gear) from nearshore ecosystems and related diver training and reef-monitoring activities, including in the Gulf of Tribugá. == Partnerships ==

Work in the Bogotá Region has involved collaboration with Bogotá's water utility, Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogotá (EAAB), on corridor-scale watershed planning in the Chingaza–Sumapaz–Guerrero landscape, and joint work on natural-infrastructure analysis for Bogotá's water system. == Funding and conservation finance ==

CI Colombia's work has been linked to conservation-finance mechanisms used in Colombia to support protected areas and forest conservation, including debt-for-nature transactions and project-finance-for-permanence initiatives. Project finance for permanence (PFP) is a conservation-finance approach intended to support the long-term management and sustainable financing of large-scale conservation programmes, including country-wide or regional systems of protected and conserved areas, by securing policy changes and the funding needed to meet defined conservation goals over a long-term timeframe. In simple terms, it combines a multi-year conservation plan and financial model with an upfront "single closing" in which major funding commitments are secured, and funds are then disbursed subject to agreed disbursement conditions (milestones and results). Assessments and debate Debt-for-nature swaps have been discussed in the conservation-finance literature as a mechanism that converts or restructures debt to generate local funding for conservation activities, with analyses noting both potential long-term funding benefits and implementation challenges that depend on programme viability and institutional capacity. A 2025 review described a renewed policy focus on debt-for-nature swaps while arguing that the evidence base should move from exploratory discussion toward more empirical research, and the CRS report also summarised policy debates over the scale of debt reduction, how conservation funds are generated and disbursed, and the contested relationship between debt reduction and reduced resource extraction. == Impact and evaluation ==

Integrated National Adaptation Project In completion reporting for the Integrated National Adaptation Project (INAP), CI Colombia was described as responsible for administrative and financial management processes, including procurement and disbursements, within a multi-institution arrangement delivering technical components through national and regional agencies. The same review highlighted reported outputs including guidelines to incorporate climate variability and climate change into regional development plans in the Chingaza Massif, and described CI Colombia as effective in providing administrative and technical support and coordination across participating agencies. Bogotá water system natural infrastructure analysis An assessment of natural infrastructure options for Bogotá's water system modelled potential economic and water-quality benefits from upstream investments, including scenarios involving restoration and sustainable land management in the Upper Bogotá River basin and associated water-supply catchments. The analysis estimated that implementing sustainable silvopastoral systems and restoration across 2,460 hectares could require about US$5.3 million and generate about US$44.6 million in undiscounted benefits over a 30-year period. Reported outputs from landscape and coastal initiatives In Huila, a 2025 progress update for Pacto HYLEA reported more than 700 hectares of forest restoration and wildlife monitoring that recorded 1,282 species, alongside activities described as directly benefiting about 2,100 rural families. In Putumayo, a Colombia Sostenible project implemented under Naturamazonas reported restoration interventions covering 310.78 hectares and 614 zero-deforestation agreements covering more than 1,500 hectares, alongside sustainable-production activities with rural producer associations. On the Pacific coast, a community diving group working in the Gulf of Tribugá described retrieving ghost fishing nets from nearshore ecosystems, with divers estimating that more than 120 kg of nets had been removed since 2023 in actions supported by Conservation International and partners. == References ==