The next generation of climate leaders: ‘ Colombia's Greta Thunberg’ is on a mission to save the melting glaciers

Marcela Fernandez   |   Founder of Colombian NGO Cumbres Blancas, out in the field
 

For Marcela Fernandez, protecting Colombia’s shrinking glaciers through conservation of the paramos – a biodiversity-rich and delicate area found on the country’s mountain ranges - is her life’s work and her beliefs akin to religion. 

Dubbed “Colombia’s Greta Thunberg” in her country, Fernandez is the founder of Cumbres Blancas, an NGO that creates greater awareness of Colombia’s six remaining glaciers and the importance of conserving and restoring the surrounding wet and humid moorlands that also provide water to millions of people across the region. 

“The glaciers are my temple,” said Fernandez, who lives in a cabin in a forest near the city of Medellin, where she eats whatever she can grow.     

“Building a movement requires a lot of discipline,” added the 34-year-old. 

From Colombia's second-largest city Medellin, Fernandez began her journey to becoming a leading environmentalist when working as a peace activist as a youth in the 1990s and early 2000s. She has teamed up with a local NGO to help residents of the gang-ridden slums to reintegrate back into society.

But it was when the 14-years-old represented Colombia and her school at an environmental event in Norway that she became fully aware of the threat posed by climate change after meeting climate activists from around the world. 

“The glaciers are currently starving – there is not enough snow and the way to make snow starts with the paramos because they create the fog.”

A few years later, Fernandez was shocked to read an article in a newspaper on Colombia’s six tropical glaciers and how eight had disappeared in the last century – so started to research the issues and find ways to make a difference. 

“We realized that the high mountains in Colombia cannot live without the paramos,” said Fernandez, who speaks five languages and was the only Colombian listed as one of the British broadcaster BBC's 100 most inspiring and influential women for 2023. 

“The glaciers are currently starving – there is not enough snow and the way to make snow starts with the paramos because they create the fog,” she added. 

“It is one of the ecosystems that has the most capacity of carbon sequestration … it is humid, if you step on it and get wet. They are our water reservoirs.” 

Colombia is one of the world's 17 "megadiverse" countries - identified by conservationists as being the richest in species with 10 percent of the globe’s biodiversity and home to more than 50 percent of the world's paramos. 

The paramos are also where the iconic and hairy-leafed Espeletia plants grow. Also known as frailejon, they are a native and endangered species that can only be found in three countries. 

But the paramos – so vital for the glaciers’ survival - are highly-flammable in the dry season and have come under pressure in recent years from fires started by people looking to expand areas for mining, agriculture and raising cattle. 

This had to be done by citizens like us because we realized that Colombia was not prepared [to effectively address the fires and deforestation threatening the paramos]. They are burning and we don’t have helicopters to turn them down.”  

To combat the destruction, Marcela and her team – who she cites as her biggest inspiration – established a network of “fire-watchers” among rural communities across the paramos states, who use messaging platform WhatsApp to raise the alarm when new fires or land-clearing have started.  

Cumbres Blancas then creates awareness about the fires and the importance of the paramos through social and traditional media – imploring officials to act quickly. 

The NGO has also raised funds to pay for fire-fighting tools – like radios - that they have distributed among rural areas to empower them in tackling fires.  

“This had to be done by citizens like us because we realized that Colombia was not prepared,” she said. “They are burning and we don’t have helicopters to turn them down.”  

Fernandez’s organisation has also established nurseries, hiring local people to help restore the paramos and grow native and endangered plants. This has also opened up areas to eco-tourism and boosted local livelihoods. 

“The main point is restoring the ecosystem with local communities through the greenhouses on their own land,” she said. 

Despite acting at other scales and different levels of governance, Marcela's NGO and the UN-REDD Programme's mission converge on the one key point: the need to stop and reverse deforestation to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. 

The UN-REDD Programme through its REDD+ Academy provides to NGOs around the world key information and data for capacity building and action on the ground. 

October’s United Nations COP16 biodiversity summit in the Colombian city of Cali will be a great opportunity to create partnerships and bring greater international awareness on the importance of the paramos, said Fernandez.  

More research to measure the paramos’ capacity to absorb water and carbon is also important to attract funding, she added. 

To raise awareness, her organization will take COP16 delegates to visit the paramos and learn about their work with local communities – meeting the farmers and villagers who are the “guardians of the land” around Colombia’s glacial and rural areas. 

“It is important to go outside of the negotiating buildings and connecting with nature,” she said.  

“It cannot be the year of COP16 and we’re still massively doing deforestation with massive fires in the paramos.” ENDS 

_{Photo credit: © Marcela Fernandez}