Biodiversity Day Results

COMMENTS AND CONTEXT
Villa de Leyva is a municipality located in the Colombian Andes in an inter-Andean dry valley in the Department of Boyacá, 180 kms. north of the country’s capital Bogotá.

In terms of natural ecosystems, the region has been transformed by men even before the first Europeans arrived at the American continent.

It is well known that Villa de Leyva is not a very rich place in terms of biodiversity in Colombia. But this place was chosen for the Biodiversity Day as a way to show the region’s biological richness as part of a local process of knowledge. The municipality holds a great variety of ecosystems and offers the infrastructure required for such an event.

More than 800 persons among scientists, university students, children and members of the community participated in the Biodiversity Day. Split up in 30 groups and coordinated by 38 scientists and 45 supporting researchers, participants in this taxonomic marathon searched for species in six different zones of Villa de Leyva:

Two places in the southwest part, a dry region that shows in its desserts the impact of centuries of agricultural use.

Two places in the center and northeast, a sub-humid region that holds the major part of the municipality’s population among a landscape that includes spots of native forests that protect the watercourses.

Two places in the humid area of Villa de Leyva which includes a large part of Santuario de Flora y Fauna de Iguaque with different types of ecosystems in mountain forests and dry páramo and reaches an altitutde of more than 3.000 meters. Iguaque has various lakes of glacial origin and it is the place of birth of several springs that form the basin of the Suárez river.

The results of the Biodiversity Day were surprising. Bringing together specialists around the search and identification of the region’s species allowed to find a great quantity of species in a relatively poor and degraded area.

If this event had been done in another region of Colombia like the Chocó or the Amazonas the number of species found would have been much higher. But most other regions in the country do not offer the infrastructure that is needed for an event of these dimensions.

The taxonomic marathon had a great significance as a register of information for the region, but above all it has stressed out the enormous lack of knowledge that exists around the biological richness of the country. In addition the event showed the capacity and immense interest that is awakening in the country, and specially among the scientific community, to learn and inventory Colombia’s biodiversity.

The Biodiversity Day in Villa de Leyva was essential in order to accelerate a process of local knowledge and creating conscience about the region and its biological diversity. It was also a unique opportunity to bring together scientists and university students from all over the country, school children from Bogotá and Villa de Leyva and members of the community interested in learning about nature and Colombia’s biological richness.

The results of this biodiversity Day are even more interesting if one keeps in mind that the country still has a limited scientific capacity in terms of infrastructure, logistics and number of scientists. It is therefore key to emphasize that a group of only 38 scientists responsible for the coordination of the search and identification of species found 1.497 species.

Thanks to this first taxonomic marathon it was possible to promote the teamwork of scientists from all Colombia and bring the knowledge of these scientists to students, children and community members. Moreover the event publicized the biological diversity of the Villa de Leyva region and it became the beginning of a process that will continue next year with a biodiversity day that is going to take place on the country’s Caribbean coast in marine ecosystems.

Note:
The scientists who coordinated the groups and classified the species elaborated the final lists of species. Some scientists included comments to their lists in which they mark out some special aspects of their findings.


Fossils Group	Invertebrates Group	Reptiles and Amphibians Group

Reptiles and Amphibians Group	Birds Group	Spiders Group