Colombian Documentary Highlights Páramos' Role in Water Supply

Filmmaker Alejandro Calderón's documentary *Páramos II El Origen* was screened at the Bonito CineSur festival in Bonito, Brazil. The film brings together specialists to explain the formation and function of páramos – high‑altitude, water‑rich ecosystems of the tropical Andes, most extensive in Colombia and also present in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and the Panama‑Costa Rica border.

The documentary stresses that páramos act as natural water towers, feeding rivers that flow toward the Amazon, the Orinoco and the Atlantic. It warns that mining, monoculture agriculture and cattle grazing threaten these habitats, reducing soil water‑retention capacity. Calderón calls for a worldwide discussion on land‑use practices, linking the páramos' fate to broader environmental concerns such as the Amazon rainforest.