Introduction to the Karst Geoheritage of the municipality of El Peñón (Santander, Colombia)

Abstract

Karstic systems constitute one of the most vulnerable environments to climate change and human actions, the tourist activities not suitables in areas with karstic systems (speleotourism) have shown that it can be a danger to their conservation, nevertheless, tourism could also be an effective way of conservation contributing to the sustainable development of rural territories. The youngest municipality in Santander, El Peñón, located on calcareous rocks of the Rosablanca Formation constitutes an extensive and important karstic system that houses a great geological, landscape, archeological and biotic wealth. The karstic development of the region is governed by the tectonic control of the area evidenced in the preferential orientations NW-SE and NE-SW acquired by the exo and endo karst units. The almost pristine state of the great majority of these underground manifestations allows its study for the contribution to the approach of alternatives that see this heritage as a resource with great potential to contribute to the sustainable development of this territory with a recent past of violence.

Advances are made in the inventory of the karstic geological heritage that El Peñón has, and the valuation through the M-GAM methodology of the first 6 identified geosites: Panama canyon, Los Carracos Cavern, Golden Cave, Virgin´s Cave, Karst Town and La Tronera Cavern. The evaluation through this methodology allowed an evaluation of tourism in the region and confirm that these places have a unique wealth with vast opportunities for the development of geotourism and speleotourism. The application of the standardized index of sensitivity of caves also allowed us to have a better understanding of the richness of these ecosystems, indicating the greater control that should exist over human activities that take place in the lower gallery of Los Carracos Cavern and Golden Cave.