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Hummingbird, Cocora Valley, Colombia
Tropical mountain forests are fragile but contain
high biological diversity. In total these forests
host 45,000 vascular plants and 3,400 species
of vertebrates in just 1% of the Earth’s land
mass. However, high mountain tropical forests
are seriously threatened by climate change
and land use changes. Despite these threats,
knowledge about the effects of global change
on biodiversity in tropical mountain forests is
still poorly understood. It is therefore a priority
to establish and apply long term monitoring of
these ecosystems.
A workshop held in October 2012 in Lima,
Peru, brought together more than 40 scientists
and policy makers working on Andean forests.
Among the results of the workshop, it led to
the formation of the Andean Forest Monitoring
Network. The goals of the network include
stimulating scientific research on Andean forest
ecosystems by promoting collaboration among
scientists, and serving as a platform to facilitate
applied research and communication between
scientists and policy makers. Current members
of the network include scientists from Argentina,
Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Peru, USA, and
representatives of Ministries of Environment
and the national Climate Change adaptation
programs of Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and
Peru. The creation of the network, and the
development of its first two papers, was possible
thanks to the financial support of the Swiss
Agency of International Cooperation (SDC)
through the International Centre on Environmental
Monitoring (CIMA), the German Corporation
for International Cooperation (GIZ), and the
endorsement of the Andean Community General
Secretariat (SG-CAN).
The network has produced two important documents
for the region. The first is an extended protocol
to monitor biodiversity and carbon dynamics in
Andean forests (Osinaga et al., 2014). This protocol
was developed by the Institute of Regional Ecology,
National University of Tucuman, Argentina, and
has been revised by experts working in the Andes.
It describes methods to monitor ecological changes
over midrange and long periods of time. It focuses
on changes in the diversity and growth rates of trees,
shrubs and lianas; the cover of herbaceous species;
and the carbon content in forests. This protocol
is a useful tool for those interested in conducting
long-term ecological research. Moreover, its use
produces standardized data needed to understand
ecological processes.
The second document presents a meta-analysis of
the dynamics of trees and carbon in the region, the
first conducted in the region. Network members
contributed data from more than 60 monitoring sites
located from Colombia to Argentina. Some sites have
been monitored since the 1990’s. The initial results
indicate that warmer, wetter, and more seasonally
differentiated forests had higher turnover rates of
individual trees, and biomass. Most of these patterns
hold for both, tropical and subtropical forest sites.
The Andean Forest Monitoring Network: a communication platform for
science and policy in the Andean countries (Red de Bosques Andinos)
CASE STUDY