The Hague, May 4th 2004
I would like to extend a very special welcome to all of you, diplomats, conservation scientists, professors, public servants and representatives of NGOs, who are gathered today at the Embassy of Colombia to launch the book "Los Paramos del Mundo".
This magnificent book is the most comprehensive study on tropical natural high altitude grasslands known as páramos. It has been written by a group of Andean and European experts and published in collaboration with the IUCN Netherlands Committee as part of the Global Peatland Initiative.
The aim of this publication is very novel and strategic: to draw the attention of decision-makers in Latin America and elsewhere about the importance and plight of these unique ecosystems.
According to the book, páramos cover approximately 35,000 square kilometres in the tropical Andes, extending across Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru. Similar ecosystems are found in the alpine life zone of East Africa and South East Asia. With its island-like distribution along the most elevated parts of the northern Andes, the páramos are one of the most culturally and biologically diverse ecosystems as well as a strategic asset for both highland and lowland communities as the water supplier of the Northern Andes.
In fact, páramos are the most elevated ecosystem of the world. They receive the highest irradiation from the sun and have the richest flora. It is the home for many beautiful animals such as the condors, the pumas, and the colibrís. And most important of all, it is an incomparable source of fresh water, since every single square meter of páramo produces one litre of water per day.
In a period of time when researchers are starting to consider water as an invaluable asset, even more than petroleum or gas, the protection of páramos is a vital investment for the future.
In the Andean region, páramos reflect our enormous natural richness and biodiversity. It produces 85% of the fresh water we drink and 85% of the water that is needed to generate electricity and make crops and daily life possible.
The five Andean Community Member Countries -Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela- have the privilege of sharing the region with the largest number and variety of animal and plant species in the world. Considered by experts the "Global Epicenter of Biodiversity", the subregion is the world's foremost producer of native and varied vascular plants, birds, amphibians and insects. It is also the origin of important phytogenetic resources that supply roughly 35% of the earth's agricultural food crops and agro industrial products.
The immense natural wealth that Andean countries possess represents 25% of the planet's biological diversity. And with MERCOSUR countries, we have almost one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
However, Andean countries are facing an imminent danger of the loss of this natural heritage due to deforestation and contamination. At the preset time, 30% of páramos have been damaged; 40% have been altered; and one-third is still in normal conditions.
In this process of degradation, the world wide drug problem has a big share of responsibility. In Colombia, for example, in the last twelve years illegal crops destroyed more than 1.200.000 hectares of natural forest and páramos, which are critical to preserve the Amazonian ecosystem and natural sources of fresh water. Furthermore, five hectares of natural forests are ruined in order to have one hectare of coca crop, and every year 200.000 gallons of pesticides, 16.000 tons of chemical fertilizers and 100.000 gallons of poisonous substances are thrown into Colombia's rivers and soils.
The Colombian government has made a huge effort to reduce the harmful effects of illegal drugs on the environment. On one hand, it has offered peasants who have small coca plantations the possibility of substituting these crops with legal products. These programs have yielded important results: a reduction of 58% of the coca crops passing from 176.289 in 2000 to 69.000 in 2003.
More recently, the government, being consequent with his commitment towards the environment, took the transcendental decision of prohibiting fumigations in Colombia's natural parks in order to reduce any eventual negative effect this could have on nature.
Despite all these efforts, the present situation creates a high vulnerability for our Andean countries and hence deserves central attention in the international agenda. We need to enhance conservation and recuperation programmes, as well as sustainable projects that mitigate the harmful effects of human activities over natural and biological resources.
When it comes to protecting the environment no effort is big enough. As passengers in an airplane flight we know that the destiny of all human kind is tied together. We either strive to reach our destination or we end up in an undesirable catastrophe. We all have a part in this challenging task.
On one hand, national governments must continue to support and transform into practice the principles of "right to development" and "shared responsibility" as established at the Rio Summit in 1992. Moreover, States should continue developing their policies on this matter taking into account three principles - environmental protection, economic growth and social development - which are essential to have a comprehensive understanding of the problem and its solutions, and are the basis to promote international cooperation and establish a common foreign policy on the subject.
However, I believe that conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity are not the responsibility of governments alone, but is also a task where non-governmental organizations, the private sector, local communities and each of us has a role to play in transforming certain development models and, more specifically, some patterns of production and consumption. Thus, the creation of synergies between public and private sectors is essential if successful projects and initiatives on these issues are to be carried out in the Andes.
"Los Páramos del Mundo" is an excellent example of the work that we have to do with civil society to assure sustainable development and hence, the conservation and use of biodiversity. I am sure that this publication will call the attention of decision-makers in Latin America and elsewhere to the magnitude of these unique ecosystems and will contribute to the design and implementation of sound and effective policies in our countries. We are world players in the new "era of water and oxygen". Now, we have to take the necessary steps to safeguard our valuable natural heritage and to use it in an adequate way.
