Resumen

VARGAS-FIGUEROA, Jhon Alexander. Biodiversity from the Upper and Middle Basin of Cali River: Do I know it? Do I transform it? Do I protect it?. rev. cienc. [online]. 2019, vol.23, n.1, pp.65-85. ISSN 0121-1935.  https://doi.org/10.25100/rc.v23i1.8618.

Colombia is considered one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. One portion of its biodiversity is enclosed on the ecosystems within the Andean Region, where there is also a high species endemism. The upper and middle basin of the Cali River is part of this region. Therefore, the species diversity, the ecological functions and the evolutionary history of the ecosystems located in this basin are paramount elements for conservation purposes, framing them at the national and global scales. However, currently we still do not know how much diversity cover those ecosystems and thus, how many species of this diversity are actually threatened. In the Cali River basin, there are many anthropic activities, from agriculture and cattle raising to land mining. All these activities exercise an important pressure over the biotic and abiotic components of this natural formation, but we are not aware of which of these activities best explain aspects regarding land cover change, degradation and habitat loss and also the matter of extinction risk of the species. The aim of this work is to set a debate about the current status of the biodiversity knowledge on the upper and middle basin of the Cali River and its conservation status, the assessment on the influence that anthropic activities found in the basin have over the degradation and/or habitat loss, and certain conservation, restoration and sustainable management actions that we could take into account in the context of global effects, including climate change and the local effects caused by known anthropic pressures exercised over the basin zone, in order to understand, in the future, after doing a conjoint suitable work, how much of that biodiversity could remain over time.

Palabras clave : Farallones de Cali; endemism; degradation; deforestation; extinction risk; restoration; conservation incentives.

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