Unlocking Páramo: Protection and Restoration in the Highlands

Abstract

This paper focuses on an approach to estimate carbon in one of the most representative, diverse and fragile ecosystems in Colombia: the páramo. This ecosystem is distributed over the three mountain ranges of the country and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and covers almost three percent of the national continental territory. According to the literature, these ecosystems store the largest reserves of atmospheric carbon in the soil, with the capacity to accumulate between 119 and 397 tons of carbon per hectare (tC/ha) in the shallowest meter of soil. On the other hand, aboveground biomass - that is, trees and plants (trunk, branches, bark, leaves, etc.) growing on the ground - is another important sink of atmospheric carbon, with the capacity to contain between 13.21 and 128 tC/ha. However, the amount of carbon in these two compartments (soils and biomass) is site-dependent, as climate, topography and vegetation determine carbon sequestration and accumulation.