Reserva Natural La Pedregoza is located 67 KM (41 miles) from the Orinoco River port city of Puerto Carreño in the departamento of Vichada, Colombia. We are situated along the banks of the beautiful Rio el Bita, a protected river, and beside a large afforestation project. The Reserva Natural La Pedregoza is established for the conservation of Orinoco River basin flora and fauna. Together with our NGO, the Corporación Ambiental La Pedregoza, we are actively engaged in a number of conservation and biodiversity programs including endangered native tree seed collection, giant river turtle rescue, and the preservation of traditional medicinal and alimentary plants from the region.
Together with other organizations we help to collect giant Podocnemis river turtle eggs before poachers can take them. We then hatch them at Reserva Natural La Pedregoza for release back into the wild, once the baby turtles are better able to survive on their own.
Afforestation and reforestation usually involve introduced tree species, which is bad for biodiversity. Little is known about many native tree species and how best to propagate them. At Reserva Natural La Pedregoza we collect and plant native trees in order to establish a seed bank.
Together with the Missouri Botanical Gardens we have established a Sacred Seeds Garden at Reserva Natural La Pedregoza for the conservation, preservation and ethnobotanical knowledge of traditional medicinal and alimentary plants found in the rainforests, inundation forests and savannah of the Orinoco River basin.
Education is a vital part of getting people involved in conservation and biodiversity preservation. Our NGO, the Corporación Ambiental La Pedregoza, plans to build an Interpretive Center to explain the importance of the rain forest, inundation forest, gallery forest, savannah and the biodiversity that depends on it in the Orinoco River basin.
Our NGO hosts select international and national students who are required to do their internship (pasantía), practicum or Masters thesis in a relevant field of study at the Reserva Natural La Pedregoza. We will consider applications from a large variety of biological, environmental, forestry and sociological disciplines. We do welcome volunteers with relevant skills.
