Our professional team was the one that led the research and development of the workshops that were carried out with the property owners of the community of the municipalities of Luruaco and Piojó and with the competent authorities such as the Alexander von Humboldt Institute, the Autonomous Corporation of the Atlantic and the Botanical Garden of Cartagena, thus generating the synthesis document that was accepted to declare a new protected area of 2,622.15 hectares (6,479.5 acres) in the Department of Atlántico.
The Tropical Dry Forest (TDF) provides environmental goods and services such as soil stabilization, nutrient cycling, water, and climate regulation. It is the habitat of a large number of species of plants, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects, some species registered as endemic to a distribution restricted to these ecosystems. Due to its high diversity, human communities have benefited from the offer of timber and non-timber products offered by the forest such as medicinal plants, seeds, fibers, and dyes. However, currently, only 8% of the original TDF coverage remains in Colombia, with the Caribbean region hosting the largest proportion of dry forest remnants with 55% of the current national total. Therefore, the conservation, restoration, and connection of the remaining TDF relicts are a priority in the national and international agendas for conservation.
The cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) has become an umbrella species for the conservation of the diversity of tropical dry forests since these are their only habitat. Therefore, alliances and unions between institutions and Departments have been created to generate purposes such as expanding the conservation and restoration areas of this ecosystem and thus ensure the survival of the species. In fulfillment of these purposes, the Atlantic Autonomous Regional Corporation (ARC) defined the priorities for the selection of protected areas (PA), thus generating the establishment of the three public Protected Areas of the Department since 2010, achieving the protection of a coverage of 2,913.97 hectares (7,200.6 acres) under a protection figure, to which 2,622.15 hectares (6,479.5 acres) were added this year with the creation of the new protected area "Palmar del Titì, for a challenge to manage and conserve a total of 5,957.51 hectares (14,721.3) in total represented in 4 protected areas in the Atlantic and 1 in Bolívar, thus increasing the connectivity of the TDF and therefore ensuring the viability of the ecosystem services provided by the forest.
"The palm grove is the most abundant here, and that is what the Titi eat" for statements like these made by the inhabitants of the corregimiento de palmar de Candelaria in the municipality of Luruaco, it was decided to call the new area PALMAR DEL TITI.
The photograph was taken from:
https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/medio-ambiente/dos-mil-nuevas-hectareas-para-proteger-al-mono-titi-en-el-caribe-articulo-803211
