Concession La Pintada, Celsia and Fundación Grupo Argos plant more than 200 thousand trees

Sustainability | DECEMBER 16th, 2019

• On Monday, December 16th, agreements were signed with the owners of four farms for the reforestation of about 100 hectares in the municipality of Támesis, Antioquia.
• The Concession will reforest more than 2,000 hectares in the next seven years.
• With this alliance comes to Antioquia ReverdeC, a voluntary initiative of the organization that seeks to contribute to the conservation of water basins that supply municipal and village aqueducts.

La Pintada Concession developed an alliance with Celsia and Fundación Grupo Argos to promote ReverdeC in Antioquia, a voluntary reforestation program that will close 2019 with the intervention of 98 hectares in the southwest of Antioquia with the planting of 204 thousand trees of native species. On Monday, December 16th, the alliance signed four agreements with property owners in Támesis dedicated to reforestation.

With this alliance, we join forces to protect the Cartama River and the Cuchilla Jardín-Támesis Integrated Management District, to restore strategic ecosystems that will generate ecological connectivity and that will help recover environmental services such as carbon capture, availability and water regulation . Among the species that include plantings are: strawberry (Ehretia tinifolia), chagualo (Myrsine guianensis), bear hand (Oreopanax bogotensis), guava (Psidium guajava), drago (Crotton magdalensis), turkey eye (Prunus integrifolia), caper (Senna pistaciifolia) and chrilobirlo (Tecoma stans).

“Convinced of our purpose of contributing to the care of the environment for the sustainable development of the territory, we set out this year to plant more than 200 thousand native trees that help regulate the climate, protect the births and tributaries of the river and serve to the connectivity of fauna species typical of the region, such as the spectacled bear, the white-tailed deer, the puma, various species of birds, tigrillos, opossums, raccoons and babillas”, said Gustavo Bernal, manager of the La Pintada Concession.

For his part, Jairo Villada, leader of Socio-Environmental Management of Celsia, commented that “we are very happy to participate in this initiative with our ReverdeC program, with which we have planted four million trees in four years in El Valle del Cauca. The experience that we have acquired both technically to be effective in planting, as well as humanly from the relationship with the communities, we are sure that it will be very valuable for this project in the southwest of Antioquia. This milestone represents the gateway of the watershed protection program to the department.”

ReverdeC will effectively protect strategic ecosystems, which also involve the population of the region. Owners and community members have voluntarily joined the program by providing lots for ecosystem conservation and restoration purposes.

“Companies, farmers and the community in general, we must join forces to conserve ecosystems and take care of streams and rivers, which will allow to reduce water pollution, take care of our crops and counteract the intense summers and times of heavy rain. One of the systems that will receive the most impact will be the Cartama River, one of the main tributaries of the Cauca River in the area, which we will benefit from with the reforestation of more than 2,000 hectares in the next seven years”, added Bernal.

More about Pacific Connection 2

This fourth generation (4G) project, operated by the La Pintada concession, with a majority stake in Odinsa, has an investment of more than COP 1.3 billion for the construction of 42.5 km of new roads, 2.5 km of double tube tunnel, 54 km of rehabilitated roads and 42 bridges distributed in five sections or functional units. Its lines of intervention in sustainability focus on the support of conservation initiatives, training actions, proposals for ecological tourism, environmental potential (flora and fauna) identified in the territory and the protection and reforestation of water basins.

More about ReverdeC

ReverdeC is the Celsia reforestation program, which is carried out with the support of the Corporación Autónoma Regional del Valle del Cauca, CVC, and which seeks to plant 10 million trees in 10 years, cultivated and cared for by the communities.

The priority is to contribute to the conservation of river basins, many of which supply the country's municipal and village aqueducts.

To date, the program carries 4 million trees planted in more than 3,000 hectares of Valle del Cauca, thus taking care of 22 river basins in 32 municipalities. 100% of the workforce of this program is local. Likewise, the program is committed to planting species in threat category and to date seven species have been planted.

Listen to the testimony of Juan Martín Vasquez, elected Mayor of Támesis, Antioquia, about the relevance of this alliance to the region by clicking here.

Listen to the testimony of Ana Mercedes Villegas, Director of Fundación Grupo Argos by clicking here.