Guardians for the conservation of forests and biodiversity of La Guajira

August 12, 2019. As the best protectors of the forests and empowered of the biodiversity and sustainability of their territories, the representatives of nine community partnerships of environmental monitoring of La Guajira, signed a memorandum of understanding of Conservation Agreements with Cerrejón and Corpoguajira, aimed at safeguarding the strategic ecosystems and species for the region, in seven protected areas of the department: the Protected Forest Reserves of Cañaverales and Montes de Oca; the Integrated Management Districts of the Ranchería River Delta, Perijá, Lower Ranchería River Basin, Bañaderos and Musichi.

Development of this strategy is the product of the environmental remediation which Corpoguajira had requested from Cerrejón. The goal is to promote, through voluntary agreements with stakeholders, environmental preservation including the protection of species (including the Corazon Fino, the Guayacán de Bola, the Puy and Ollita de Mono) on a 350 hectares area of tropical dry forest.

“We highlight this public – private alliance between Corpoguajira, Cerrejón and the communities that are settled in the area of ​​influence of our protected areas, which is also an alliance for life, for natural wealth. Today we see an empowered community, leading its actions towards conservation and this is the result of private companies contributing and contributing resources to strengthen these alliances between communities and institutions”, said Luis Medina Toro, director of Corpoguajira

Similarly, Jose Vicente Cotes Ipuana, legal representative of the Aimaajushi Foundation said: “The pact we signed today is an agreement that will allow us to work articulately. For us to be able to get involved in this as much as the Office of the Governor of La Guajira, the municipality, the Corporation and the others that have to do with the care of the environment, is very important, because who better than we the natives, who feel our mother nature is running out for so many things that people who are not in the territory do, to be able to be involved and have our mother earth respected. ”

This is articulated with the national strategy of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Guardians of Environment and Peace, which promotes the preservation and conservation of forests by the communities and peoples that inhabit them, avoiding actions such as deforestation, fires and illegal hunting of species.

What unites us is to work for the protection and care of our ecosystems, empowering the actors in the territory and generating synergies aimed at making our environment a sustainable one for our current and future generations.