Categoría: Proyectos Ambientales

Los microplásticos son contaminantes emergentes con una distribución global amplia y representan un riesgo para la biodiversidad y el sustento de comunidades indígenas en la costa caribe Colombia. Estas partículas son mayormente traídas por los turistas y transportadas por los ríos desde el continente hacia los ecosistemas marino-costeros, en donde se acumulan y afectan su calidad ambiental. El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar la contaminación por microplásticos en manglares y playas del área marina protegida en el Caribe colombiano. En mayo de 2022, se seleccionaron tres estaciones en los manglares y dos en las playas turísticas, en donde se muestrearon microplásticos en el agua superficial y sedimentos, los cuales se identificaron visualmente bajo el estereoscopio, se contaron para determinar su abundancia y se clasificaron según sus formas. La abundancia de microplásticos fue mayor en los manglares en comparación con las. En ambos ecosistemas, las películas, las espumas y los fragmentos fueron las formas más comunes, relacionándose con la deficiente gestión de residuos domésticos, la baja regulación del turismo y sus residuos y la pesca en la zona. Este estudio realizado por parte del equipo Ecoceanos aporta al conocimiento sobre la distribución, la abundancia y las características de los microplásticos en manglares y playas de la región, para generar conciencia ambiental sobre sus riesgos y promover acciones sostenibles que permitan prevenir y mitigar sus impactos negativos, especialmente, en las áreas marinas protegidas involucrando a las comunidades indígenas y a las sociedad civil garantizando así el bienestar general.

SUMMARY The proposed program aims to address the environmental challenges faced by Venezuelan migrant indigenous women and girls in Colombia. It seeks to guarantee their environmental rights, promote their empowerment and preserve their cultural traditions. The program focuses on equitable access to natural resources, capacity building, environmental awareness, comprehensive protection, and inter-institutional cooperation. It will be implemented through strategic alliances and monitoring indicators will be established to assess its effectiveness. This programme represents an important step towards an inclusive and sustainable society.The diagnosis reveals that the massive displacement of Venezuelans to Colombia has generated significant environmental impacts, which disproportionately affect indigenous women and girls. These communities face obstacles in accessing vital natural resources, such as clean water, food, adequate shelter and basic services. This not only jeopardizes their well-being, but also their ability to preserve their cultural traditions and ancestral knowledge. KEY WORDS: women, indigenous, migrants, Venezuelans, natural resources, crisis, comprehensive protection.

The energy balance of the Mata de caña, Cordoba, Colombia, is presented and the renewable energy potential is estimated. It is shown that only a rigorous approach to sustainability guarantees an impact on the economic development of the community, taking into account the sustainability criteria required by the Clean Development Mechanism. An energy model was developed to calculate the demand for irrigation, according to climatic, orographic and crop variables. Key words: sustainable development, renewable energies, CDM, LULUCF.

SUMMARYThis article presents the initial living conditions of the members of the Zenú indigenous community, among these conditions are the water supply for consumption, health, welfare and environmental conditions. This community is located in lands adjacent to the Purísima village, in which they do not have the supply of basic sanitary services (drinking water, electricity, gas, among others) for the development of life and other activities related to it. According to the above, the Zenú indigenous community lacks the necessary conditions for the development of a good quality of life, emphasizing the precarious water supply system they have, as this has brought with it different environmental, social, economic and health problems, since the liquid is not received with the quality parameters established by the Colombian technical standards. Due to this problem identified in the indigenous community, a sanitary solution was proposed, which consisted in the construction and start-up of a raw water treatment plant, in order to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants, reduce diseases, improve the development of economic activities, prevent internal conflicts, etc.Key words: Drinking water, Indigenous community, Health, Environment, wellbeing.

SUMMARY The lack of regulation in the monitoring of shark trade by species is a major challenge that Colombia shares with several countries in the world, mainly due to the difficulties to identify at the species level, using the shark parts traded (dried fins, meat and processed). To address these conservation and management problems, in the present study we applied a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay with species-specific primers based on the ITS2 ribosomal region. In addition, we characterized the shark meat trade in the wholesale market of the city of Quibdó, Colombia, which functions as a collection center for the trade of this product. Results based on the identification of tissues by multiplex PCR reveal that the trade is composed of at least two species. Oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) and pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus). A total of 93.26% (n=138) of the samples analyzed corresponded to species listed in one of the IUCN threat categories. The molecular technique applied in this study has proven to be reliable, fast and useful for the identification of shark species, making it a key tool for strengthening traceability systems and the chain of custody of shark products. KEYWORDS: CONSERVATION, TRADE, GENETIC IDENTIFICATION, QUIBDÓ, ITS2, PCR MULTIPLEX, SHARKS, IUCN.

In 2021, the ECOCEANOS Corporation works in agreement with the Zenú indigenous community, located in the reservations of San Andrés de Sotavento, Colombia. This project aimed to include renewable energies for the mitigation of the effects of climate change, in the indigenous reservation that is home to 500 families, located 2 km from the Colombian Atlantic coast. The indigenous reservation is plagued by problems of basic needs; Among them, having electricity, vital to have access to social, professional and cultural opportunities. The ECOCEANOS Corporation and the University of the Caribbean carry out the installation of 50 photovoltaic kits to benefit 50 artisan indigenous mothers, thus having access to sewing machines for fabric manufacturing, hat making and also being able to cook in electric stoves in favor of the environment. This project impacts the community significantly, providing decent work opportunities (micro-enterprises) and capacity to participate in the development, implementation and evaluation of sustainable policies and measures aimed at combating climate change.

RESUMEThis plan is a pioneer in the conservation of 3 species of sharks: ‘Carcharhinus porosus’, ‘Carcharhinus longimanus’ and ‘Sphyrna lewini’. On the Colombian Atlantic coast, a 58% reduction in the biomass of sharks and rays has been identified between 1970 and 2007 (García et al., 2007). We have registered a progressive decrease over time of the landing volumes and reduction in the average catch sizes, and in the insular zone of the Caribbean (Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina) a strong fishery aimed at the extraction of these organisms, which captured mostly juvenile individuals (Castro-González and BallesterosGalvis, 2018). Despite this evidence of deterioration in elasmobranch populations, their extraction patterns have been poorly documented in Colombia. Additionally, it has been diagnosed that there is a clear deficiency of knowledge in different biological and ecological aspects that are relevant for the conservation and management of the species of sharks of species ‘Carcharhinus porosus’, ‘Carcharhinus longimanus’ and ‘Sphyrna lewini’. The panorama described above and the need for the countries of the world to generate their own strategies for the ordering of cartilaginous fish, leads ECOCEANOS CORPORATION to formulate the National Action Plan for the Conservation and Management of Sharks (PAN-Tiburones Colombia). This plan is a pioneer in including management and conservation proposals for sharks in Colombia.This is a national proposal in accordance with the regional particularity of the geographical areas of the Colombian Atlantic coast, differentiated by the fishing carried out in each one of them, the established fishing communities and the species of sharks and rays associated in the catches. The Action Plan is supported by the previous diagnostic document, consigned in this document. Finally, the Action Plan is structured in such a way that it covers investigative, legal and governance issues, surveillance and control, education and dissemination, management and conservation strategies, and a phase of permanent evaluation of progress in related activities and adjustments of the same Plan over time. Keywords: Smalltail Shark, Oceanic Whitetip Shark, Scalloped Hammerhead Shark; Zenú indigenouscommunity; sustainable fishing, extinction.