Los Nevados National Natural Park

Los Nevados National Natural Park
Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados
IUCN category II (national park)
Aerial view of Los Nevados National Park
Location	Caldas, Risaralda, Quindío and Tolima, Colombia
Nearest city	Manizales
Coordinates	4°48′00″N 75°22′00″W / 4.8°N 75.366667°WCoordinates: 4°48′00″N 75°22′00″W / 4.8°N 75.366667°W
Area	58,300 hectares (225 sq mi)
Established	1973
Governing body	SINAP
Website

Los Nevados National Natural Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados) is a national park located in the Cordillera Central of the Colombian Andes. The 5,300-metre-high (17,400 ft) volcano Nevado del Ruiz dominates Los Nevados. Out of the 55 protected areas in Colombia,^[1] Los Nevados National Natural Park was the third most visited in 2009, with 50,045 visitors. The most visited was the Rosario and San Bernardo Corals National Natural Park followed by the Tayrona National Natural Park.^[2]

General

In addition to Nevado del Ruiz, seven other volcanoes are located in the area: Nevado del Tolima, Santa Isabel, Nevado del Quindío, Páramo de Santa Rosa, Cerro Bravo, Cerro Machín and Nevado El Cisne.

Glacial activity has shaped the landscape 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above mean sea level, leaving U-shaped valleys and moraines behind. Extrusive igneous rock are dominant above 3,500 m (11,500 ft) on the eastern slope and 2,200 m (7,200 ft) on the western slope.^[3] The Otún Lake lying in extinct volcano crater^[4] and Green Lake are located in the area.

The park's hydrographic networks supply water to over 2,000,000 coffee-growers in the region and to most of the rice and cotton crops in the Tolima Department.^[4]

The park is located in the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, Tolima and divided in the municipalities Villamaría, Santa Rosa de Cabal, Pereira, Salento and Ibagué.

Flora and fauna

The area is home to 1250 species of vascular plants, 200 bryophytes, 300 lichens and 180 macroscopic fungi.^[3]

On the lower slopes and in the valleys the Andean wax palms are dominant. The upper Andean forest has trees reaching up to 30 m (98 ft) in height.^[4]

Noteworthy birds include blue-crowned motmot, yellow-eared parrot, Fuertes's parrot, rufous-fronted parakeet, Andean condor, brown-banded antpitta and ruddy duck. The bearded helmetcrest hummingbird is endemic to the region.^[3][4][5] Noteworthy mammals include the mountain tapir, spectacled bear, northern pudú, oncilla, cougar and white-eared opossum.^[4]

Footnotes

1. "Los parques" (in Spanish). Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia. Retrieved 22 July 2010.
2. "Parque Corales del Rosario es el más visitado en Colombia" (in Spanish). El Tiempo. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
3. Rangel-Ch., J. Orlando; Garzón-C., Aída (1997). "Region of Los Nevados Natural National Park". In Davis, S.D.; Heywood, V.H.; Herrera-MacBryde, O.; Villa-Lobos, J.; Hamilton, A. Centres of Plant Diversity: A Guide and Strategy for Their Conservation. Volume 3: The Americas. Cambridge, England: World Wide Fund for Nature, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. ISBN 2-8317-0199-6. Retrieved 11 July 2010..
4. "Nature & Science Los Nevados". Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia. Retrieved 11 July 2010.
5. IUCN 1982, p. 144

References

• IUCN (1982), IUCN directory of neotropical protected areas (in Spanish and English), IUCN, ISBN 978-0-907567-62-2.
• Villegas, Benjamin; Sesana, Laura (2007), Colombia Natural Parks, Villegas Asociados, ISBN 978-958-8156-87-3.

External links

Media related to Parque Nacional Natural de los Nevados at Wikimedia Commons

• The parks page at Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia (Spanish)