Serrania de Chiribiquete Natural National Park (19049)
Colombia, South America

Site overview

KBA status: confirmed

Global KBA criteria: A1b, B1

Year of last assessment: 2023

National site name: Parque Nacional Natural Serranía de Chiribiquete

Central coordinates: Latitude: 0.7936, Longitude: -73.0189

System: terrestrial, freshwater

Elevation (m): 200 to 800

Area of KBA (km²): 42661.68698

Protected area coverage (%): 100.00

KBA classification: Global

Legacy site: Yes

Site details

Site description: Chiribiquete National Natural Park is located in the north of the Colombian Amazon between the departments of Caquetá and Guaviare, in the jurisdiction of the municipalities of San Vicente del Caguán and Puerto Solano, department of Caquetá, and San Jóse del Guaviare, department of Guaviare. The area is delimited to the northeast by the Tunia or Macaya River, up to its confluence with the Ajaju River, which cuts the mountain range in its northern portion, at the point called Dos Ríos, and from there is known as the Apaporis River. The eastern limit of the park is described by the Gunaré and Amú rivers, up to the mouth of the Messay River. Finally, it is bordered to the south by the Yarí River and to the west by the Huitotos, Tajisa, Yaya and Ajaju Rivers. Several Amerindian cultures live in the area and there are also several sites of archeological importance belonging to the Carijona group. The park is famous because it has an important number of cave paintings. The park is made up of geomorphological units designated as landscape provinces with a predominance of hills, highlands and plains. It is a place with a large number of endemic species, with tropical rainforest and savannah ecosystems. Biogeographically, it is located in the Guyana zone (Hernández-Camacho et al. 1992 a, b). Since 1990, the Puerto Rastrojo Foundation has carried out research and conservation work in this area. As part of the studies that have been carried out in the park are the discovery of two new subspecies of birds, studies of bat species in the southern zone, among others. Studies have also been conducted at the Puerto Abeja Station of the Puerto Rastrojo Foundation in Serranía del Chiribiquete National Park, where the Exploration and Environmental Monitoring Group (GEMA) of the Humboldt Institute conducted studies for two years (Álvarez et al. 2003).

Rationale for qualifying as KBA: The main reason for the nomination of this KBA is the species Chlorostilbon olivaresi (Chiribiquete Emerald), an endemic bird from Colombia that triggered B1 criteria. Also, Lagothrix lagothricha (Common woolly monkey) triggered A1b criteria.

Additional biodiversity: Among the birds that possibly inhabit the Park are the Oilbird (Steatornis caripensis), the Guaianan Cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola), the Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao), and the kingfishers (Ceryle torquata, Chloroceryle amazona, and C. inda). Additionally, the recently described Chiribiquete Emerald (Chlorostilbon olivaresi) is noteworthy (Stiles 1996, Álvarez-Rebolledo et al. 2003). Non-bird biodiversity: Chiribiquete National Natural Park is an area with a high number of endemic species. The monotypic genus Senefelderopsis, of the Euphorbiaceae family, is prominent. On the other hand, records include the Jaguar (Panthera onca, NT), the Otter (Lontra longicaudis, DD), the Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis, EN), the Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), the Puma (Puma concolor, NT) (Rodríguez-Mahecha et al., in press), and the Black Caiman (Melanosuchus niger, EN) (Castaño-Mora 2002). The only known threatened plant species is Licania hebantha (NT) (Calderón et al. 2002). Additionally, the Park is part of the distribution area for various bats (Carollia spp., Noctilio leporinus, and Noctilio labialis, Peropteryx spp., Lonchornia marinkellei, and Myotis spp.), armadillos (Dasypus spp.), the Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa), the Collared Peccary (Tayasu pecari), the Paca (Agouti paca), and the White-fronted Capuchin Monkey (Cebus albifrons) and the Brown Capuchin Monkey (Cebus apella).

Manageability of the site: Managed by the administrative branch of Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia

Other site values: Presence of Coreguaje community called El Porvenir Kananguchal, Karapanadesanacubeotucano and Pijao Llanos del Yarí- Yaguara II

Delineation rationale: New boundaries were stablished to follow exactly the limits of the entire Serrania El Chiribequete Natural National Park

Habitats

IUCN Habitat	Coverage %	Habitat detail
Forest		Forest – Subtropical/tropical moist lowland
Savanna		Savanna - Moist
Wetlands(Inland)		Wetlands (inland) – Seasonal/intermittent/irregular rivers/streams/creeks

Threats

Threat level 1	Threat level 2	Threat level 3	Timing
Human intrusions & disturbance	Work & other activities
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting	Unintentional effects: large scale (species being assessed is not the target) [harvest]	Ongoing
Biological resource use	Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Intentional use (species being assessed is the target)	Ongoing
Transportation & service corridors	Roads & railroads		Ongoing

Additional information