Páramo climate watch: Salento's biological island

Our Mission

Protect the Andes is a Colombian nonprofit founded in 2024 to restore, conserve, and research Andean ecosystems. We work where science is scarce and the stakes are high — in remote, understudied landscapes where biodiversity data can mean the difference between protection and destruction. Every project is documented through a short film, connecting a global audience to the species and landscapes we work to save.

Background & Problem Statement

The páramo ecosystems of the Colombian Andes are among the most climate-sensitive habitats on Earth. Acting as natural water towers, they capture moisture from the clouds and slowly release it to sustain the rivers, communities, and ecosystems below. Yet the long-term effects of climate change on these high-altitude grasslands remain poorly understood — particularly in isolated páramo ecosystems that exist as biological islands surrounded by cloud forest.

In 2024, our team discovered one such biological island in Salento, Quindío: a pristine páramo at 4,200m, encircled entirely by High Andean forest. Why does this páramo exist here, isolated from the main páramo belt? What will happen to it as temperatures rise? Will it expand into the forest, or will the forest reclaim it? These questions have never been studied here — and the answers matter for every community that depends on this watershed.

Solution

We established a permanent monitoring plot inside this páramo biological island — the first scientific baseline dataset for this ecosystem. Every plant was individually recorded, photographed, and measured: species identity, height, and leaf spread. Among them, the iconic frailejón — a plant so slow-growing that tracking its change requires decades of commitment. This baseline will serve as the scientific foundation for understanding how climate change reshapes this ecosystem over time.

In 2027, we will return for our Year 3 measurement expedition, adding the next critical data point in what will become a decade-long climate record unique in the Colombian Andes.

How We Work

Our approach combines rigorous field science with community partnership. The data we collect is not just academic — it is shared with local communities, landowners, and regional authorities to inform how they manage and protect their water sources. In parallel, we document every project through short documentary films, building public awareness and a growing global community of supporters who fund our work directly.

Tracking Impact

Impact will be tracked through annual plant measurements at fixed coordinates within the plot, photographic documentation of individual species over time, and frailejón growth rate data — one of the first such datasets in this region. Results will be shared openly with conservation organizations, universities, and local communities. The 2027 expedition will produce a comparative dataset measuring change across three years of climate data, establishing this site as a long-term scientific reference point for páramo ecology in Colombia.

Our Experience

Since founding in July 2024, Protect the Andes has built a field program spanning 8 sites across Colombia — from páramo at 4,200m to Caribbean and Pacific coastlines. We have deployed 25 camera traps across cloud forest, tropical dry forest, and conflict-recovering community lands; installed wildlife crossings in the Magdalena Basin; documented the vulnerable endemic species Andinobates victimatus alongside indigenous communities; and conducted coastal cleanup campaigns on both Colombian coasts. All of this with a team of two and a budget under $10,000 — proof that committed people with the right partnerships can move fast and work lean.