The Story

Since 2009, Fundación Biodiversa Colombia (FBC) has been actively working in the area of Barbacoas, Antioquia, in central Colombia, to protect, together with landowners and local communities, the last preserved forest fragments and wetlands of a very diverse and highly threatened ecosystem: the rainforests and wetlands of the lowlands of the Middle Magdalena Valley, in Central Colombia. These ecosystems are habitat to numerous threatened and endemic species such as blue-billed curassows, brown spider monkeys, silvery-grey tamarins, manatees, jaguars, pumas and ocelots, among other (see key species below). In June 2017 Barbacoas was declared the first public protected area in the lowlands of the Middle Magdalena Valley.

With a donation from IUCN The Netherlands, in 2012 FBC purchased the El Silencio Natural Reserve with 74 ha. Nowadays, El Silencio has a functioning visitor center and research station and has been registered at National Parks as a Civil Society Natural Reserve. The reserve is the operative center from where FBC carries out research, conservation, restoration and monitoring in the area of Barbacoas. Within El Silencio we have carried out active and passive restoration and pilot areas of sustainable cattle farming and agriculture.
In 2018, thanks to a donation from IUCN-NL, World Land Trust and Tennis S.A., we will expand El Silencio in 519 additional hectares, including 482 ha of continuous forest.

Some key species found in El Silencio and surrounding areas

Brown spider monkeys (Ateles hybridus): Critically endangered, near endemic, one of the 25 most endangered primate species worldwide.
Blue-billed curassows (Crax alberti): Critically endangered, endemic, it's habitat has been reduced in 89% of its former range and a its total population in Colombia is estimated at 150 - 700 individuals.
White-footed tamarins (Saguinus leucopus): Endangered, endemic to the western bank and lowlands of the middle Magdalena and under protected by public areas in Colombia.
Varied White-fronted Capuchin (Cebus versicolor): Endangered, near endemic and under protected by public protected areas in Colombia. Grey-handed night monkeys (Aotus griseimembra): Vulnerable.
Magdalena river turtle (Podocnemis lewyana): Critically endangered, endemic. Red-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria, EN, presumed extinct in the wild in central Colombia). Large felines, such as jaguars, pumas, jaguarundis and ocelots are also fairly common in the area.