page_title: Providencia Island, Colombia
section_title: Environment
hierarchical_section_title: Providencia Island, Colombia / Environment
caption_attribution_description: Isla Providencia, San Andres Colombia
context_page_description: Isla de Providencia, historically Old Providence, and generally known as Providencia, is a mountainous Caribbean island that is part of the Colombian department of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina and the municipality of Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands, lying midway between Costa Rica and Jamaica. Providencia's maximum elevation is 360 metres above sea level. The smaller Santa Catalina Island to the northwest is connected by a 100 metres footbridge to its larger sister Providencia Island. The Providencia Island has 17 square kilometers, the two islands cover an area of 22 square kilometres and form the municipality of Santa Isabel, which had a population of 4,927 at the Census of 2005. The island is served by El Embrujo Airport, which the Colombian Government plans to expand in order to take international flights.
  The island was the site of an English Puritan colony established in 1629 by the Providence Island Company, and was taken by Spain in 1641. The pirate Henry Morgan used Providencia as a base for raiding the Spanish empire, and rumours suggest that much of his treasure remains hidden on the island.
context_section_description: The 995-hectare national park Old Providence McBean Lagoon is located on the island's northeast side, between Maracaibo and Rocky Point.  This National Park consists of coral reefs, small Cayes, mangroves, lagoons and tropical dry forest.  The National Park has a tiny visitor centre on Crab Caye, from where there are views towards the barrier reef and the waters that surround the caye.
  A local population of black land crabs is noteworthy for its breeding migration, which occurs every April/May.  These crabs live in the hills of the island and descend (en masse) to the sea once a year to lay their eggs.
  Providencia is the centre point of the UNESCO Marine Protected Area the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, which forms 10% of the entire Caribbean Sea.  This ecologically important reserve contains some of the world's greatest marine biodiversity, and incorporates the Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, in addition to the remote uninhabited cays at Roncador Bank, Serrana Bank, as well as distant reefs that include Quita Sueño Bank, Rosalind Bank and Alice Shoal.
caption: Aerial view towards Manzanillo beach and Old Providence McBean Lagoon on the east coast of Providencia Island
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