The Regional Autonomous Corporation of La Guajira, Corpoguajira, Caribbean and Environmental Heritage Foundation, recently they signed the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement 003 of 2011, in order to formulate the environmental management plan wetland Laguna Washington, located in the municipality of Maicao.

The objective of these projects is to obtain ecological and social information needed to make decisions that contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and defining strategies for solving environmental conflicts in these aquatic ecosystems.

"We want this initiative, advance and expand knowledge of these fragile ecosystems in the department of La Guajira, by various environmental goods and services that the wetland Laguna Washington generates, and specific problems that both the environmental authority and the municipality want to address directly to contribute to its solution. “, Romero Perez explains Arcesio, General Manager Corpoguajira.

Nowadays, Laguna wetland system Washington does not have any information about its components in order to define an organized scheme sustainable use and management, especially for coming faced serious pressures threatening the ecological stability thereof. One of them, and perhaps the most important, is the indiscriminate hunting of species of native and migratory birds; thus affecting overall biodiversity of the area, since these species play important roles in regulating the populations of other living organisms, algae such as, microalgae and aquatic insects, besides contributing significantly nitrogen rich organic matter through their waste

Investment to develop the wetland management plan is $238 millones, Work will be carried in seven months, They stand out from other, the following actions:

– Conduct a baseline survey and diagnosis of resources associated with the wetland Laguna Washington.

– Evaluate this ecosystem from the ecological and socio-economic perspective.

– Environmental zoning to build system management

– Generate dynamics of participation (Community, ethnic and institutional) land for building, focused on structuring the management of the wetland Washington.

– Prepare the Plan of Action of the system as a technical tool, establishing institutional and operational, regulate and plan the use, development, preservation, Recovery, protection and management of natural resources and the implementation of other environmental activities conducted in the area, under the ecosystem approach and in the field of conservation of biodiversity.

– Generate methodological and technical recommendations for an eventual declaration of Municipal Protected Area.

Compliance with these tasks is given to the provisions of the Plan of Action Corpoguajira 2007 – 2011, With regard to Integrated Water Management Program, Watershed Conservation Project and Strategic Ecosystems .