Bogotá, Colombia

About the Program
In Bogotá, Colombia, General Motors has made a united effort to restore degraded environmental areas on its company site and in metropolitan parks, such as Canoas MP, which is situated in the páramo ecosystem surrounding the city. The team works with Corporacion Ambiental Empresarial (CAEM), Hojas Verdes Foundation, and the Chevrolet Foundation to accomplish these goals. Habitat in the site includes a forest (the Bosque Empresarial GM Colmotores), grassland (GM Colombia Protection Area), and a landscaped area (Colmotores Gardens). GM uses the habitat areas to promote environmental education and awareness to employees, students and local community members.

Practices and Impacts

• The team supports the restoration of the Canoas Metropolitan Park within the Soacha Municipality, which is a key part of the Bogotá river watershed. GM hosts several planting days annually to reforest the area and create wildlife habitat for species that depend on the park's resources. 
• The team educates GM employees and community members on the importance of maintaining habitat areas by visiting Canoas Metropolitan Park and another site to participate in hands-on planting events. By actively supporting conservation projects, participants learn about climate change mitigation, watershed protection and ecosystem services.
• In order to support avian species that are native to Bogotá, the GM team altered their company's yard to serve as avian habitat. They installed native plants, stopped mowing in order to decrease disturbance and closely monitored bird species that came and went. As a sign of success, two alcaraván individuals nested in the ground on the site.
• The team educates employees, their families and local students about the importance of water for ecosystems and for human life. Through a series of online webinars and an in-habitat planting event, participants learned about how conserving and reforesting the páramo ecosystem around Bogotá helps to guarantee a steady water supply for the neighborhoods below.
• The regional GM department across South America educated its employees on the importance of conserving biodiversity and local habitats. For the Bogotá, Colombia sub-region, the participants learned about the ecosystem services provided by the wetlands within the city and about the challenges involved in conserving these vital areas.