Colombia protects the forests of Los Farallones

On October 30, 2026, Colombia's Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development announced that a new protected area had been created in the Andes. The area, called Los Farallones, covers 23,776 hectares, or about 238 square kilometers, in the east of Cundinamarca, the department that surrounds the capital, Bogota. It lies in three municipalities, Gachala, Medina and Ubala, right next to Chingaza National Natural Park.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the board of Corpoguavio, the regional environmental authority that led the process. Los Farallones is not a national park but a regional integrated management district, which is a different kind of protected area. Under Colombian law, national parks are declared by the national ministry, while regional districts like this one are declared by regional environmental authorities through their boards. In such a district, landscapes and ecosystems keep their natural functions, even if people have already changed them in some ways. At the same time, people can use and enjoy the land, as long as they do so in a sustainable way. The exact rules for each part of the area will be set later, through zoning and a management plan.