Afforestation and reforestation expands habitat for endangered wildlife. All trees provide shelter from weather and predators. Many of our tropical trees produce fruits and seeds that feed animals. The llanos orientales or eastern plains of Colombia are home to a large variety of endangered wildlife, including mammals, birds, reptiles and fish. The Amazonia Reforestation vision includes expanding, conserving and protecting the endangered habitat of those species.

The forest feeds our river, the Rio el Bita, as does every morichal or heavily treed tropical savanna drainage creek. The river and the adjacent riparian forest are home to giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis), pink river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis), yellow-bellied caimans (Caiman crocodilus), Orinoco crocodiles (Crocodylus intermedius), giant anacondas (Eunectes murinus), sting rays (Potamotrygon hystrix) and manatees (Trichechus inunguis), all on Colombia's red list of endangered wildlife.

Vichada is home to deer (Odocoileus cariacou), tapirs (Tapirus terrestris), lowland pacas (Cuniculus paca), two-toed sloths (Choloepus didactylus), pecarries (Tayassu pecari), jaguars (Panthera onca onca), ocelots (Felis pardalis), armadillos (Cabassous unicinctus), crab-eating foxes (Cerdocyon thous), capybaras or chigïiros (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), parrotlets (Forpus passerinus), scarlet macaws (Aro macao), hawk-eagles (Spizaetus ornatus), ducks (Oxyjura jamaicensis), geese (Neochen jubata) and red howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus), to name just a very few.

One of our pet projects is the Podocnemis river turtle egg hatchery we are doing inside the Reserva Natural La Pedregoza. Poachers steal the Podocnemis river turtle eggs to sell as food, so we want to get to the turtle eggs first, hatch the baby water turtles and then release them into a protected inlet of the Rio el Bita. We also have Geochelone carbonaria tortoises in the natural reserve.

Our River Turtle Rescue Program - a PDF download. Can you help?

Here is a PDF download of a fishing trip we took on the Orinoco River.