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Climate change impacts in Colombia

Complejo Volcanico Doña Juana–Casacabel National Park, Colombia.

WWF Contact

Luis Germán Naranjo

Ecoregional Conservation Director WWF Colombia - Sede Principal +57 2 558 2577 ext 122

Climate change impacts in Colombia - what the IPCC 4th Assessment Report has found:

  • The retreat of glaciers are affecting already compromised water availability for consumption or hydropower generation [TS4.2 & 13.2.4].
  • Between 1990-2000 a 82% reduction in glaciers, showing a linear withdrawal of the ice of 10-15 m yearly. Under the current climate trends, glaciers of the country will disappear completely within the next 100 years [Table 13.3]
  • In the future, sea level rise, weather and climatic variability and extremes modified by global warming are very likely to have impacts on mangroves [13.4.4].
  • SLR of 1.0 m would permanent flood 4,900 km2 of low lying coast. About 1.4 million people would be affected, 7,208,299 ha of crops and pasture will be lost [Table 13.7].

WWF work

What WWF is doing on the ground in Colombia to protect against climate change:

The Northern Andes provides home and livelihood to more than 40 million people from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Northern Peru, with nearly 70% of the human population depending on the environmental goods and services provided by its biodiversity-rich mountain forests and high elevation grasslands ecosystems.

However, these ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of the considerable degree of habitat conversion and deterioration.

In response, WWF proposes to develop and implement adaptation strategies for forest and grassland ecosystems to climate change, with the aim of ensuring the maintenance of biodiversity and key environmental services for human populations.

We intend to accomplish this by working together with local and national stakeholders and conducting a thorough analyses of vulnerability and modeling the effects to montane forest and grassland ecosystems under different climate change scenarios.

Using this analysis and modeling, WWF will promote the development of land use management plans and restoration actions in priority areas of the Northern Andes.

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