Colombian documentary spotlights Andean páramos' role in water supply

The documentary *Páramos II El Origen*, directed by Colombian filmmaker Alejandro Calderón, was screened at the Bonito CineSur festival in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. It explains that páramos – high‑altitude mountain ecosystems of the tropical Andes found in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, a small part of Peru and the Panama‑Costa Rica border – act as natural sponges, storing water in glacial‑volcanic soils and feeding rivers that flow to the Amazon basin, the Orinoco River and the sea.

Calderón highlights growing threats to these ecosystems, including mining, monoculture agriculture and intensive cattle ranching, which degrade vegetation and reduce the soils’ water‑retention capacity, with downstream impacts on water quality and regional climate. He calls for a global discussion on land‑use policies and urges dialogue among local communities, indigenous peoples, ranchers and landowners to protect the páramos and, by extension, other vulnerable ecosystems such as the Amazon.