Tag Archives: Voyages en Colombie

The need to develop sustainable sources of income in Colombia has taken on a new urgency since the government’s 2016 peace accord with the guerrilla movement known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. If peace has made the country more attractive to international visitors, it has also complicated the chances of survival for some of Colombia’s rarest birds. A half-century of violence uprooted millions of rural Colombians and converted large swathes of the country’s interior into no-go zones. Now, the end of fighting has set off a race to recolonise and exploit rural districts, including protected areas.

When José Jarvi Bazán started using organic production methods in 2004, he never imagined that his farm, “El Renacer” (south of Valle del Cauca in the municipality of Jamundí, Colombia), would become such a special place for bird conservation. At the beginning, his main motivation was to grow a healthier crop, as he realized that the pesticides he was using were toxic to the environment and degraded his land. Together with his wife, Nelly Lucumí, he began to produce natural agrochemicals to fight weeds and pests.

I spend most of my day indoors, in front of a computer. The only music I hear is the rhythmic clacking of my fingers on the keyboard, sometimes in adagio and occasionally (if I’m lucky enough to be inspired) in allegro. Before the era of COVID-19, the most excitement I experienced involving a bird was with a blue jay that liked to sit on the ledge of my office window. To not scare it away, I’d freeze in my chair and stare.

The tourism sector, like no other economic activity with social impact, is based on interaction amongst people. UNWTO has been guiding the tourism sector’s response on several levels:
· By cooperating closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), the lead UN agency for the management of this outbreak;
· by ensuring with WHO that health measures are implemented in ways that minimize unnecessary impact on international travel and trade;
· by standing in solidarity with affected countries; and · by emphasizing tourism’s proven resilience and by standing ready to support recovery.

The coffee belt, in fact, is one of the areas with a great diversity and richness of bird species in Colombia. The temperate regions, between 1200 and 1800 meters above sea level, with temperatures between 17 and 23° C and average annual rainfall of around 2000 mm, offer optimal conditions for coffee cultivation, and are also regions that constitute a crucial habitat for many species of birds.

Birding, the act of seeking out bird species, is considered by some to be a hobby. To me, birding is a lifestyle and an obsession. If I miss a day getting outside, or at least parked by a window for a few minutes to observe visitors to my bird feeders, I feel the void. I never leave home without my binoculars and, much to the annoyance of loved ones, am likely to interrupt just about any conversation to point out a neat bird. (To me, most birds are neat.)