Minas Mountain Range (19103)
Colombia, South America

Site overview

KBA status: confirmed

Global KBA criteria: A1a, A1b, B1, B2

Year of last assessment: 2023

National site name: Serranía de las Minas

Central coordinates: Latitude: 2.1446, Longitude: -76.0700

System: terrestrial

Elevation (m): 2100 to 2700

Area of KBA (km²): 1016.81462

Protected area coverage (%): 54.98

KBA classification: Global

Legacy site: Yes

Site details

Site description: The Las Minas Mountain Range is a mountain formation located in the department of Huila, which branches perpendicularly from the Central Cordillera in the volcanic range of Coconucos. Seven municipalities have jurisdiction over it: on the Loro River slope, in the northwestern region of the mountain range, La Argentina and La Plata; on the slopes of the Bordones and Granates rivers, in the southeastern region, the municipalities of Isnos, Saladoblanco, Oporapa, Tarqui, and Pital. The region adjacent to the Puracé National Natural Park to the west is in good conservation condition, especially in the municipalities of Isnos, Saladoblanco, La Argentina, and La Plata. The eastern end of the mountain range presents anthropic disturbance and structural disconnection of the forest.

Rationale for qualifying as KBA: This site it's important for the conservation one plant species: Saurauia pulchra that triggered the A1b and B1 criteria; also by the presence of three birds species that triggered some KBA criteria as Scytalopus rodriguezi (A1a. B1 and B2), Atlapetes fuscoolivaceus (B1 and B2) and Hapalopsittaca amazonina (B2).

Additional biodiversity: At this moment, a total of 122 species have been recorded in two localities of La Serranía de Las Minas: Campoalegre hamlet (La Argentina) and Las Minas hamlet (Tarqui), of which nine are under some degree of threat: two endangered (EN), two vulnerable (VU), and five near threatened (NT) (Renjifo et al. 2001); five have a distribution of less than 50,000 km2 (i.e., endemic), and three are considered nearly endemic (Stiles 1998); thirteen are restricted to the Norandino biome, and one presents genetic interest.

Manageability of the site: This area is managed by CAM (Corporación Autónoma Regional del Alto Magdalena) with is in charge of all Protected Areas in Huila department.

Other site values: Documented presence of indigenous communities as Nasa, Paez, Guambiano and Yanacona

Delineation rationale: Only new biodiversity was added to this KBA, so there was no change to its original boundaries.

Habitats

IUCN Habitat	Coverage %	Habitat detail
Forest		Forest – Subtropical/tropical moist montane
Artificial - Aquatic		Plantations

Threats

Summary of threats to biodiversity at KBA: Currently, the main conservation problem facing La Serranía is deforestation, due to the advancement of the agricultural frontier for the establishment of granadilla crops; in the municipality of Isnos, there is massive extraction of wood used as fuel for the production of panela. The biological characterization team of National Parks has recorded hunting of several species of birds (e.g., Aburria aburria, Ortalis colombiana, Pionus chalcopterus, Aulacorhynchus hæmatopygus, etc.) and medium-sized mammals (e.g., Choloepus sp., Agouti sp., Dasyprocta sp., etc.), which are used for food, medicinal purposes, and to prevent damage to crops (Unpublished data).

Threat level 1	Threat level 2	Threat level 3	Timing
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting	Unintentional effects: large scale (species being assessed is not the target) [harvest]	Ongoing
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops	Shifting agriculture	Ongoing
Biological resource use	Hunting & collecting terrestrial animals	Intentional use (species being assessed is the target)	Ongoing

Additional information