ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some basic questions about the paramo region, which represents between 1.5 and 2% of the Colombian region. The environments in which paramo vegetation predominates are found the treeline in the northern Andes and in Central American countries such as Panama and Costa Rica; here, the open type of vegetation predominates. In the different zones of the Colombian paramo, 327 plant communities have been recorded matorrales are predominant in all the belts, and the zone with the greatest expression of this vegetation type is the grass paramo or paramo proper. The adequate utilization of natural resources in the paramo region is bound, by necessity, to the water resources. The greatest biodiversity and the number of species with restricted areas of distribution are found in the belts with an upper-Andean subparamo ecotone; the lowest values are found in the superparamo. There is evidence of anthropogenic disturbance in the majority of the paramo regions of Colombia.
