Henrik Balslev

The paramo region in the northern Andes is very biodiverse, presents high endemism and provides many ecosystem services. Unfortunately, the paramo is critically threatened by anthropogenic activities and climate change. Further research and development of efficient conservation strategies are therefore needed for the region, but they are often limited by the lack of consistent biological data-sources. Here we present VegParamo (GIVD ID: SA-00-002, http://www.givd.info/ID/SA-00-002), a flora and vegetation database for the paramo based on phytosociological vegetation plots. VegParamo contains data from 3,000 georeferenced vegetation plots with updated nomenclature. The database is accessible through the webportal http://www.vegparamo.com, from which floristic and vegetation data can be freely consulted and downloaded. This new tool should make future botanical and ecological paramo studies easier. VegParamo is already geographically and floristically representative for the paramo region, but we hope it will continue to grow in scientific significance via new data addition and revision.