Páramo của phía Bắc cao nguyên Andean là một trong những vùng địa sinh học quan trọng nhất của dãy núi Andes. Mở rộng insularly xung quanh đường xích đạo (11 ° N đến 8 ° S), nó bảo vệ đầu nguồn của lưu vực cao mà có chảy về hướng Thái Bình Dương có nghĩa là các Orinoco và sông Amazon, và đóng một vai trò cơ bản trong sự ổn định của vùng cao nguyên. Hơn nữa, páramo được đặc trưng bởi một cảnh quan sinh học cao và tính đa dạng văn hóa, một sinh vật duy. | 23 Agricultural Development and Biodiversity Conservation in the Páramo Environments of the Andes of Mérida Venezuela Maximina Monasterio Julia K. Smith and Marcelo Molinillo INTRODUCTION The páramo of the northern Andean highlands is one of the most important biogeographic regions of the Andes. Extending insularly around the equator 11 N to 8 S it protects the headwaters of the high catchments that drain toward the Pacific . the Orinoco and Amazon rivers and plays a fundamental role in the stability of the highlands. Moreover the páramo is characterized by a high biological landscape and cultural diversity a biota unique in its adaptations its hydrological environmental services and its large potential for tourism Monasterio and Celecia 1991 . In fact the páramo has been assigned high global priority for conservation Biodiversity Support Program 1995 . However in the tropical Andean countries of Venezuela Colombia and Ecuador there is a growing need for new agricultural land due to the high demand in the national markets for crops cultivated exclusively in cold mountain environments as well as due to the growing population. The ongoing advancement of the agricultural frontier in each of the three countries has led to alarming annual losses of natural páramo areas Hess 1990 Ver-weij 1995 Drost et al. 1999 . In tropical mountain environments in which the high biodiversity is endangered by dynamic processes of transformation and degradation meeting the production needs of the local population while protecting fragile ecosystems represents a challenge for the design of effective conservation strategies. This chapter addresses the relationship between agricultural dynamics in the páramo region and the conservation of areas providing fundamental hydrologic services for agriculture. The conceptual and methodological approach used is based on the analysis of three spatial scales all of them integrated through water as an environmental service of the high páramo. The .
