page_title: Northern Andean páramo
section_title: Status
hierarchical_section_title: Northern Andean páramo / Status
caption_attribution_description: Páramos de las faldas del Chimborazo, Ecuador, mostrando severa erosión eólica y sobrepastoreo
context_page_description: The Northern Andean páramo is an ecoregion containing páramo vegetation above the treeline in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador.
  In the past, when the climate was cooler, the treeline and the páramo units were lower and the units were connected.
  During the present warmer Holocene epoch the páramos have migrated uphill, shrinking and becoming isolated.
  They contain many rare or endangered species, some of them restricted to a narrow area of one mountain or mountain range.
  The ecoregion is relatively well preserved, but faces threats from over-grazing and farming.
context_section_description: The World Wildlife Fund gives the Northern Andean páramo the status of "Relatively Stable/Intact".
  The páramo is a major source of water for the Andean highlands and large parts of the adjacent lowlands, providing a sustainable flow of rivers with high quality water.
  Humans have been present in the páramo since the pre-Columbian period, but often did no more than allow their animals to graze freely.
  More recently the limit with the natural forest has been drastically changed by logging and intensive grazing, and it is hard to distinguish between natural and artificial grasslands.
  There has been an increase in cultivation, more intense grazing by livestock, pine plantations and tourism, all of which may affect the hydrological properties of the páramo.
  In some areas there is intensive potato and bean cultivation, which requires drainage of the waterlogged soils.
  Protected areas include the Cayambe-Coca Ecological Reserve and the Cinturon Andino Cluster Biosphere Reserve.
  Other conservation units are the Chingaza National Natural Park, Sumapaz Páramo National Park, Sierra Nevada del Cocuy Chita o Guican National Natural Park, Lake Iguaque Flora and Fauna Sanctuary, Los Nevados National Natural Park and Las Hermosas National Natural Park.
caption: Erosion of the páramo at Chimborazo, Ecuador, due to over-grazing and wind
exif: {}