Building Consensus on Biological Corridors in the Venezuelan Andes

Abstract

Abstract The Sierra de Portuguesa is an Andean mountain system with important biodiversity associated with montane vegetation types. Human use existed well before European colonization. Coffee plantations and slash-and-burn agriculture have been predominant in the last 200 years. Three distinct national parks—Yacambu, Terepaima, and Guache—were designated there at different times, according to different criteria. None is large enough to preserve entire montane ecosystems or a viable population of large mammals like the Andean bear. We propose maintenance and restoration of forest interconnections—or corridors—between the parks. Different approaches are considered to implement corridors, on the basis of consensus building among key social and political actors, with top-down and bottom-up approaches that we consider ecologically, socially, and politically sustainable.