Tools for Understand Wetlands in Colombia

For natural hydrological regimen and extreme events like El Niño and La Niña, wetlands play a role in water regulation among others services. Then is necessary has an integral understanding of this ecosystems, so that in Colombia, the Humboldt Institute in partnership with other institutions has been developing many research in wetlands, from a national scale to a local scale, support in three blocks: institutional information, the scientific community, and dialogue of knowledge. The results of these works included the first "Identification Wetlands Map of Colombia Inland Territory" using official information available at 1:100.000 of soils, geomorphology, and associated wetland vegetation coverage, as well as radar satellite images. The cartography processes identified 30.781.149 hectares of wetlands (26.99% of the national inland area), where the principal category with more extension is a temporary wetland. This characteristic implies that many organisms and the human must be adapted for the availability of water, for this reason, we can call our country like "Colombia an amphibian territory". In a regional scale in La Mojana, located in a lower land of Magdalena and Cauca Rivers, many works are framed in a restoration of wetlands behind 3 years of flooding after La Niña 2010-2011. This work had an important collaboration of local communities of fishers and farmers, who through their relation whit a complex system of swamps give us the tools for understanding the functionality of wetlands and we return solution for improved their good welling and the health of the wetland.