El Dorado Reserve: Saving Colombia's Sierra Nevada Cloud Forest

Fundación ProAves established the El Dorado Nature Reserve in 2006 on Cerro Kennedy in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to save the endangered Santa Marta parakeet, protecting 1,024 hectares of cloud forest between 950 and 2,600 meters elevation. The reserve harbors 22 bird species found nowhere else on Earth plus 15 endemic amphibians, and was named the single most irreplaceable site among more than 173,000 protected areas evaluated worldwide in a landmark Science study. It forms part of ProAves' wider network of reserves across Colombia dedicated to safeguarding threatened birds and their montane habitat.