Chocó Biodiversity Hotspot

Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena is one of 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. Identified by British Ecologist Norman Myers, hotspots are the richest and most threatened reservoirs of plant and animal life on earth.


There are an estimated 11,000 plant species found in this hotspot, about 2,750 (25 percent) of which are endemic. Of these 5,000 are found in the Colombian Chocó. Endemic birds comprise more than 100 species. The hotspot includes a wide variety of habitats, ranging from mangroves, beaches, rocky shorelines, and coastal wilderness to some of the world's wettest rain forests.

http://www.biodiversityhotspots.org/

The major threat to this region is deforestation, with the industrial production of African palm oil, uncontrolled gold mining and illegal growing of coca adding to the list of causes of deforestation.




















Aerial view of Chocó as seen from my Satena flight to Quibdo