Our work – Wild Campo Alegre

WILD Campo Alegre

Removal of barbed wire

During 2023 almost 30 km of barbed wire fences were removed in order to secure free movement of the larger fauna like mountain tapir, puma, and red brocket deer and potentially even spectacled bear. This work has continued in 2024 and currently in 2025, we are removing large amounts of barbed wire from the newly acquired La Quincha area. Furthermore, since acquiring La Quincha, we have begun removing the fences along the road going through the nature reserve. This has not been possible up till now, because of the threat from cows entering along the road from our neighbours.

Reforestation

With the enormous support and help from the environmental authorities in Risaralda (Carder), almost 250.000 trees have been planted since 2023. Along with this effort, WCA has been creating its own tree nursery and has since 2024 been producing thousands of seedlings collected from the nearby forests. These trees are currently being planted in the reserve in order to further secure the biodiversity of these former pastures.

List of some of the trees we are producing in our tree nursery

Local name	Scientific name	Family

Encenillo	Weinmannia tomentosa	Cunoniaceae
Mano de oso	Oreopanax incisus	Araliaceae
Aliso	Alnus acuminata	Betulaceae
Rodamonte	Escallonia myrtilloides	Escalloniaceae
Guayabo	Myrcianthes rhopaloides	Myrtaceae
Canelo/Aji de paramó	Drymis granadensis	Winteraceae
Botumbo	Prunus integrifolia	Rosaceae

Research

With support from UNISARC University and other institutions, we host researchers studying ecology, biodiversity, and climate resilience. We are currently constructing facilities to host researchers, biologists, students. Since July 2023 we have had camara traps documenting the wildlife in the forests of WCA. And since March 2025 we have installed 2 cameras on what used to be barren pastures near the main house and were delighted to see mountain tapir with a young tapir and also puma. Confirming that our efforts are working. The camara trap-data have already resulted in 2 publications about A) first ever documented feral dogs attacking mountain tapir and B) the first ever documented observations of mutualism and commensalism between mountain tapir and different bird species. We are expecting to be conducting a thorough work on the unique orchids of these mountains. Several new species may be revealed, according to the botanists.

Camera Traps

25 camera traps monitor species like mountain tapirs, spectacled bears, pumas, and oncillas, offering insights into cloud forest wildlife. And as mentioned above, the data from the cámara traps are already resulting in important research and will be very important for further research in the future.