Generales

By: Natalia Piedrahita Tamayo-Journalist

In the rural area of the municipality of Carepa, in the middle of the land owned by banana companies in the Gulf of Urabá, there are 150 hectares of primary tropical rainforest where the Environmental and Agroecological Studies Center, also known as Tulenapa, is located. This habitat has countless species, many of them endangered. Universidad de Antioquia is seeking the declaration of its protection.

Contrast between the forest cover inside Tulenapa and the extensive banana plantations that surround it. Photograph: Juan Felipe Blanco Libreros.

Since 2008, Universidad de Antioquia and Corpourabá have preserved the 150 hectares of forest of the Environmental and Agroecological Studies Center, which they have named Tulenapa in honor of the knowledge of the Guna ethnic group that inhabits the region. The meaning, "land of the connoisseurs of the cosmos" in the Guna Dule language, synthesizes the findings of academics and curious individuals who have come to this environmental sanctuary to study the forms of life that occur there.

The study called Update Baseline, Delimitation and Application of the Critical Route for the Management of the Tulenapa-Urabá Nature Reserve in Antioquia provides the details of a characterization of the terrestrial vertebrate inhabitants: birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. The research was led by the Regionalization Directorate and the UdeA Herbarium with the objective that Colombia recognizes and protects this natural heritage.

Data collection, the establishment of priorities for conservation and conversation with neighbors of the Center were some of the key factors in advancing this report. "Our objective is the protection of this epicenter of research and outreach that performs a fundamental task in the conservation of a low rainforest ecosystem, which has been altered throughout the territory of Urabá", emphasized Felipe Alonso Cardona Naranjo, director of the Herbarium.

Biological research reports show that there are about 1,765 native species of funga, fauna and flora in Urabá. In this corner of the confluence of sea sources —the Atlantic Ocean— and water sources —the Atrato and León rivers— there are conditions for resilient or very resistant species to grow and reproduce. However, in this tropical region, much of the forest has been replaced by agricultural production systems and banana companies.

In addition, Tulenapa is a large reservoir of green carbon. From the perspective of Universidad de Antioquia researcher Juan Felipe Blanco Libreros, biologist and leader of the ecosystem services component of the study, "the carbon that has been fixed by photosynthesis from the atmosphere in plants of different species, both trees and herbaceous, helps to partially offset human emissions into the atmosphere generated by industries and vehicles every day. It is an island of forest and carbon sequestration much larger than the agricultural and livestock areas that surround the site”.

In Tulenapa, it is common to see different marsupials such as this mammal of the genus Marmosa or mouse opossum. Photograph: Ana María Sepúlveda Seguro. 

In fact, the study points out that this place is key to mitigating the effects of global warming. At midday, there is a 10 °C difference between the interior and the outer edge of the forest. In addition, Tulenapa is fundamental in the replenishment of the aquifer that is located under the university campus and regulates the flow of the streams and creeks in the area.

Although many of the inhabitants of the Urabá region are aware of the unique ecological value of this forest, having the declaration would give it a legal framework of protection indefinitely. "By law, a protected area cannot change its designation unless by resolution of the Ministry of the Environment, so it legally protects an area of great importance", explained Blanco Libreros.

From the perspective of the university's activities, it would also provide the legal tools for teachers and students to approach the forest as a classroom open to multiple disciplines and to link university research with different actors and inhabitants of Urabá, especially within the framework of the University-Business-State Committee (CUUE), through which interinstitutional projects have been carried out in the subregions of Antioquia. 

The 21st Century Citadel in Apartadó, the Marine Sciences Campus in Turbo and the Environmental and Agroecological Studies Center —Tulenapa— make up the Urabá branch of Universidad de Antioquia, which has maintained its regional presence since 1995. This research and outreach center, which is also a natural laboratory, congregates 430 of the 1,484 students currently enrolled in the branch. The agroindustrial engineering, biochemical engineering, agricultural engineering, biology, law, sports training, physical education, music, and agroindustrial technology programs are offered there.

An Oasis of Biodiversity

Ceiba pentandra, better known as The Cathedral, a large tree in the interior of the Tulenapa forest. Photograph: Ana María Sepúlveda Seguro. 

The collection of information on the organisms that live in this area is the basis for following the declaration route (Decree 1,076 of 2015) issued by the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development. The declaration can ensure that it will be established as a protected area in the future because of the biodiversity it shelters.

"While searching for insect diversity in Tulenapa, we found so many insects —flies, crickets, spiders, beetles— that we finally had to focus on Coleoptera, butterflies, dragonflies and flies. It is an island in the middle of banana crops that has surprised us and may surprise us even more because we only know a part of it", said Juliana Torres, a biologist and researcher at the university who led the entomology component, in which several species that are key to planning areas for conservation were monitored.

In addition, Urabá is a strategic area in Colombia for migratory birds that come from temperate regions and arrive in the tropics seeking refuge for the winter season. The report estimates that Tulenapa is precisely one of those places that receive these travelers: 64 species of birds, including the Setophaga citrina or hooded warbler, the Setophaga magnolia or magnolia warbler and the Passerina cyanea or indigo bunting.

Nest of Tovi parakeets or Brotogeris jugularis. Photograph: Ana María Sepúlveda Seguro. 

Fifty-four percent of the birds seen in this forest are of the order Passeriformes, i.e. songbirds. Ara macao or scarlet macaw was one of the new species reported, as was Ara militaris, one of the most endangered species due to habitat loss and fragmentation. This is also home to one endemic species, Ortalis garrula or chestnut-winged chachalaca, and two near-endemics with restricted distribution: Psarocolius guatimozinus or black oropendola and Xenerpestes minlosi or double-banded greytail.

Likewise, this is a shelter for amphibians. "Of the species found in Tulenapa, I highlight the Surinam toad, endemic of Colombia, very threatened since it requires water bodies and very preserved places; also the Andinobates fulguritus, a very poisonous dendrobatid frog that needs very humid forests. This center is fundamental for the conservation of the herpetofauna —amphibians and reptiles— inhabitants of the region because their mobility is very reduced compared to birds or insects", explained Ana María Sepúlveda Seguro, biologist and researcher, who led the herpetofauna characterization of this study.

The document points out that another of the most important reasons to protect Tulenapa is that it is home to species that require forests with little human intervention to live. The abundance of bats of the species Micronycterys megalotis, Lophostoma silvicolum and Trachops cirrhosus is strong evidence that, although it is surrounded by crops, this primary forest is still their home.

Asellia trida or trident bat. Photograph: Ana María Sepúlveda Seguro.