Los Katíos National Natural Park () is a protected area located in northwest
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
which covers about . The elevation ranges between . It is a part of the
Darién Gap
The Darién Gap (, , ) is a geographic region that connects the Americas, American continents, stretching across southern Panama's Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department. Consisting of a large drainage basin, ...
, a densely forested area shared by
Panama
Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...
and Colombia, and is contiguous with the
Darién National Park
Darién National Park () is a World Heritage Site in Panama. It is about from Panama City, is the most extensive of all national parks of Panama, and is one of the most important World Heritage Sites in Central America.
Geography
The Darién ...
in Panama. The
Pan-American Highway
The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads that stretches about 30,000 kilometers (about 19,000 miles) from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in the northernmost part of North America to Ushuaia, Argentina, at the southern tip of South America. I ...
, when completed as proposed, would pass near or through Los Katíos. The park was declared a
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
in 1994 due to the extraordinary diversity of plant and animal species represented.
The topography of the Los Katios National Park is diverse, with low hills, forests and wet plains comprising its total area.
The two largest parts of the park are the
Serranía del Darién
The Serranía del Darién is a small mountain range on the border between Colombia and Panama in the area called the Darién Gap. It is located in the southeastern part of the Darién Province of Panama and the northwestern part of the Chocó ...
mountains, which lie to the west, and the
Atrato River floodplains in the east. The floodplains hold exceptionally fertile soil and consist of alluvial plains of two types. One consists of low-lying terraces that flood often and the other has high terraces that seldom flood. There are also low hills of up to in elevation and others that are high. Swampy marshes spread for nearly half of the park's total area. The wetlands of the Atrato floodplain are unique.
Cativo, one of the indigenous species, can grow to a height of . It lends its name to a formation called 'catival' and is found nowhere in the world except Colombia, south Central America and
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
.
Significance
Los Katíos National Park has exceptionally high
biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...
and (along with the adjacent Darien National Park in Panama), is a center of
endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
, with many species that are restricted to the region. The park is home to at least 450 species of birds.
In fact, over 25% of the bird species reported for Colombia in an area less than 1% of the total Colombian territory.
Almost 20% of the plant species in the park are endemic to the
Chocó-Darién moist forests.
Due to its geographical location in northern Colombia on the southern edge of the Central American land bridge, this region served as a filter for the exchange of animal species between North and South America in the
Tertiary
Tertiary (from Latin, meaning 'third' or 'of the third degree/order..') may refer to:
* Tertiary period, an obsolete geologic period spanning from 66 to 2.6 million years ago
* Tertiary (chemistry), a term describing bonding patterns in organic ch ...
and
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...
periods. This process continues today, and Los Katíos is the only region in South America where many Central American taxa are common, including
yew species, the
Giant anteater
The giant anteater (''Myrmecophaga tridactyla'') is an Insectivore, insectivorous mammal native to Central America, Central and South America. It is the largest of the four living species of anteaters, which are classified with sloths in the or ...
, and the
Central American tapir.
The park also protects important landscape features such as the 25 m high Tendal waterfall, the 100 m high Tilupo waterfall and the Tumaradó swamps.
In 1990, the park was made accessible by paths and accommodation for small groups of visitors, who have access to the national park through the park administration in
Sautatá.
History
The region was originally inhabited by the
Guna, an
indigenous group who, after internal fighting, had to surrender the Choc region to the Katío-Embera and emigrated to Panama. The Darién region, to which Los Katíos belongs, was historically important for the first settlers who used the land bridge from North to South America some 20,000 years ago. In the post-Columbian period, the Spanish
conquistador
Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (; ; ) were Spanish Empire, Spanish and Portuguese Empire, Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with and colonized parts of the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Asia during the Age of Discovery. Sailing ...
s
Rodrigo de Bastidas,
Alonso de Ojeda
Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He is famous for having named Venezuela, which he explored during his first two expeditions, for having been the first European to visit Guyana, Curaçao ...
and
Vasco Núñez de Balboa
Vasco Núñez de Balboa (; c. 1475around January 12–21, 1519) was a Spanish people, Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for crossing the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to ...
were the first to discover this region in 1501.
In more recent times, about one percent of the park in the Sautatá area was agriculturally developed and used primarily for the cultivation of sugar cane. After the park was established in 1974, over the next seven years the 150 or so local families were relocated to the nearby towns of Unguía, Puente América, Tumaradó and Cacarica.
The park was placed on the
List of World Heritage in Danger
The List of World Heritage in Danger is compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through the World Heritage Committee according to Article 11.4 of the World Heritage Convention,Full title: ''Conv ...
in 2009 at the request of the Colombian government to handle threats to its protection, notably deforestation, unauthorized settlements,
illegal fishing and hunting.
In 2015, the park was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger due to significant improvements in the management of the park and of steps taken by the national authorities to reduce illegal extraction of timber and overfishing.
References
External links
Park's website (spanish)
UNESCOOAS.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Los Katios National Park
National parks of Colombia
World Heritage Sites in Colombia
Geography of Chocó Department
Geography of Antioquia Department
Tourist attractions in Chocó Department
Tourist attractions in Antioquia Department
National monuments of Colombia
World Heritage Sites in Danger
Protected areas established in 1974
Chocó–Darién moist forests