In the Montes de María region of northern Colombia—between the Sanctuary of Flora and Fauna Los Colorados Flora and the highest peak known as Cerro Maco—something remarkable has been unfolding. Farmers made a powerful decision: to transform their lands into living wildlife corridors, while also turning them into open-air laboratories. Since 2019, as part of the Socio-Ecological Connectivity Project, which includes many NGO’s and park authorities, local community members have been tracking the recovery of tropical dry forest step by step—literally—measuring how the forest regenerates and how wildlife returns to places where animals were once rarely seen. This is how the Community Monitoring Strategy began. A simple idea with a powerful impact.
The goal of this strategy is easy to explain but incredibly meaningful: to generate biodiversity data from the ecological corridors while strengthening local community skills in science and conservation. What started in 2019 as a first annual monitoring cycle with only a few transects and a small focus group of animals has grown into something much larger. Today, there have been four annual monitoring cycles (2019–2025), supported by a committed network of monitors and guides across ten rural villages. Together, they’ve built a growing database that provides clear evidence: the corridor is becoming an increasingly friendly habitat for primates, birds, and medium-to-large mammals. How monitoring became part of daily life in the countryside. Monitoring doesn’t happen randomly.
The community itself chose conservation and restoration areas on their farms—patches of forest they intentionally set aside to regenerate. In these protected zones, they established 18 transects across 10 villages. Paths that once served only as routes to agricultural lands or pasturelands are now used as observation trails where monkeys, birds, and other wildlife are recorded. There have been 4 monitoring cycles beginning in 2019 (2021, 2022, 2025). Teams go out five consecutive days each month during the months of April - November, starting early in the morning between 7:00 and 11:00 a.m. One person leads as a guide—watching the forest and pointing out movement—while the monitor records data using a field notebook and GPS.
Binoculars and cameras have become just as essential as boots and machetes. Over time, monitoring has blended seamlessly into daily agricultural routines. On the way to the fields or livestock, monitors often check a transect or inspect a camera trap. Data is written by hand first, then transferred into a shared database—each entry becoming another point on the biodiversity map of the corridor.
Monkeys and birds: the neighbors returning to the forest
The results are exciting. During the 2025 monitoring cycle the community collected 405 individual observations of the four primate species found in these forests.
Cotton-top tamarins, red howler monkeys, spider monkeys and while-faced capuchin were found in many of the transects. Three of the 10 villages (Brasilar, Media Luna, and Pintura-Loro) consistently observe all four primate species when walking their transects, a strong sign that forests are more connected and habitat quality is improving.
In 2025, the monitoring program expanded again with its first bird monitoring cycle. Community members focused on emblematic and easily recognizable species such as Crested guan, chestnut-winged chachalaca, toucans, parrots, parakeets, and macaws. Of the 17 focal bird species listed there were more than 560 observations of these species in just one monitoring cycle.
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Camera traps: eyes that never sleep
While transects allow the community to see and listen for animals in the forest, camera traps allow them to see what happens when humans aren’t there. Camera trapping began experimentally in early years (2019 and 2021), especially to document elusive species such as wild cats. In 2025 community monitors installed 16 camera traps at strategic locations: wildlife trails, forest edges, springs, and areas where tracks and signs of animals were found. The cameras were programmed to take three photos per activation and were checked monthly by the same community monitors. Then came the best part: reviewing the images and identifying the species. In 2025, camera traps recorded 18 species of terrestrial mammals, including pacas, agoutis, armadillos, skunks, foxes, deer, peccaries—and of course, wild cats.
Wildcats and other mammals: confirming what once were only stories
One of the most important challenges has been documenting medium and large wild cats. These species are essential for ecosystem balance, but they can also be at the center of conflict with domestic animals. Pumas had been confirmed in earlier years through community reports, but not captured in the camera traps. However, the camera traps did record 24 ocelot sightings, 1 jaguarundi. These records—combined with previous monitoring cycles—show that the corridor still provides quality habitat and enough prey to sustain wild felines. For the community, seeing these animals in photographs taken by their own cameras is powerful. It turns something once known only through tracks and stories into undeniable proof: the forest is very much alive and thriving. But beyond the numbers, something even more meaningful has grown: local leadership and local knowledge. Today, the farmers of the Montes de María corridor don’t just produce food.
- They produce science.
- They produce conservation data.
- They produce hope.
With every transect walked, every notebook filled, and every camera trap image reviewed, they are writing a new story for Colombia’s tropical dry forest: a story of reconnection, restoration, and communities proudly stepping into their role as guardians of wildlife.