Amazonía region in southern
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 ...
comprises the
departments
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
* Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Amazonas,
Caquetá,
Guainía,
Guaviare,
Putumayo and
Vaupés, and covers an area of 483,000 km
2, 35% of Colombia's total territory. The region is mostly covered by
tropical rainforest
Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...
, or jungle, which is a part of the greater
Amazon rainforest
The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...
.
Biogeographical subregions
The region is bounded by the
East Andes along the western edge and extends to the Venezuelan and Brazilian borders in the east. The northern limit begins with the Guaviare and Vichada Rivers and extends south to the Putumayo and Amazon Rivers.
The Amazon region is divided up into distinct subregions:
* Amazon foothills: bordering the East Andes
*
Caquetá River Plain: the main watershed of this region
*
Inírida River Plain: location of the famous
Cerros de Mavecure
*
Guaviare River
The Guaviare is a tributary of the Orinoco in Colombia. It flows together with the upper Orinoco (until here also called Río Parágua), which it clearly surpasses in length (altogether about 1,760 km) and water flow. Thus, the Guaviare is hydrol ...
Plain: shared with the
Eastern Plains
The Eastern Plains of Colorado refers to a region of the U.S. state of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and east of the population centers of the Front Range.
Geography
The Eastern Plains are part of the High Plains, which are the weste ...
*
Putumayo River
The Putumayo River or Içá River (, ) is one of the tributaries of the Amazon River, southwest of and parallel to the Japurá River.
Course
The Putumayo River forms part of Colombia's border with Ecuador, as well as most of the border with Per ...
Plain: along the southern border
*
Serranía de Chiribiquete
* Amazon Trapezium: the area of land that actually borders with the
Amazon River
Other important rivers include the Vaupés, Apaporis and Yarí.
Biodiversity
The tropical rainforest, classified more specifically as a
tropical moist broadleaf forest. Within the Colombian Amazon region, there are five moist forest
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...
s:
*
Caquetá moist forests: the largest part of the Colombian Amazon region centered on the Caquetá, Vaupés, Yarí, and Apaporis Rivers
*
Napo moist forests: the southwest corner of the Colombian Amazon region, which borders the Andes and includes the headwaters of the Caquetá and Putumayo Rivers
*
Solimões-Japurá moist forests: in Colombia this ecoregion is centered on the Putumayo and Amazon Rivers
*
Japurá-Solimões-Negro moist forests: this ecoregion barely extends into Colombia mainly around the Lower Vaupés and Negro Rivers
*
Campinarana
Campinarana (NT0158, ), also called Rio Negro Campinarana, is a neotropical ecoregion in the Amazon biome of the north west of Brazil, southern Venezuela, and the east of Colombia that contains vegetation adapted to extremely poor soil. It includ ...
: this ecoregion of white sandy forest and swamps barely extends into Colombia around the Negro River in the Department of Vaupés
Protected areas
* PNN Alto Fragua Indi-Wasi
*
PNN Amacayacu
* PNN Cahuinarí
*
PNN Serranía de Chiribiquete
* RNN Nukak
* PNN La Paya
*
RNN Puinawai
* PNN ío Puré
*
PNN Serranía de los Churumbelos Auka-Wasi
* PNN Tinigua
* PNN Yaigojé Apaporis
See also
*
Amazonas (Colombian department)
Amazonas () is a department of Southern Colombia. It is the largest department in area while having the third smallest population among the departments. Its capital is Leticia and its name comes from the Amazon River, which drains the departme ...
*
Territorial Environmental Information System of the Colombian Amazon
External links
Territorial-Environmental Information System of Colombian Amazon SIAT-AC website
References
{{Colombia topics
Amazon rainforest
Natural regions of Colombia
Amazon basin