Inside forest Soatá.

The project will be implemented in the region Soatá, municipality of Boyacá, an area with a wide variety of tropical wildlife as are the bats, the study was conducted in oak forest and tropical dry forest, these ecosystems are vulnerable to human action is why it is necessary to study and conserve these species and their habitats.

The main objective is to promote the conservation of bats in Soatá Reserve to determine the species diversity and population structure, assessment of the main threats to the population of bats, making recommendations for conservation, develop a database for the populations of bats and encourage greater community awareness about the bat conservation needs.

Objectives:

 To make an inventory of bat species present in Soatá.

 To identify key sites for bat conservation.

 To assess the main threats to bats in Soatá.

 To make conservation recommendations, and raise the profile of bats, with the local people and authorities.

 To initiate pride amongst local people in environmental protection.

 Community participation to collect an analysis of the problems and possible solutions for the conservation of bats through Participation and Action Research participatory rural appraisal.

This project seeks a long-term effort to develop conservation actions:

 Production a long-term monitoring and conservation status assessment reports and conservation action plan for Bats in Soatá.

 Production a GIS-based map for distribution and extent of occurrence of species bats in Soatá, available for future researches.

 Preparation a community-based-long term monitoring program for assessment and conservation species bats in Soatá with specific roles for stockholders.

 Documentation local community traditional knowledge related to Bats

 Contribution in strengthening the capacity of the local community and a significant shareholder in the conservation of species by active participation, training and a good relationship between local communities and their environment, with a view to implementing a long surveillance term conservation program and future plan of action on the conservation of bats in Soatá after the draft.

 Contribution to increase public awareness and rural communities to assess their environment, the importance and action of Bats in forests and the importance of actions to conserve them.