15 August 2025

Finca Villa Barbara in northern Colombia, home to many amazing animals

I have the incredible luck to actually live in this place and wake up to the sound of birds and howler monkeys. Our small organic farm and nature reserve has a beautiful area of tropical dry forest, which is the most endangered major tropical ecosystem in the world. In Colombia, less that 8% remains. In northern Colombia in the subregion of Montes de Maria, 51% of that 8% remains, but it is highly fragmented making it difficult for animals to find each other or find new food sources.

The tropical dry forest, including our Finca Villa Barbara, is home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including ocelots, yaguarundis, two- and three-toed sloths, anteaters (both the Tamandua and the Giant anteater), red howler monkeys, grey-handed night monkeys, tayras, armadillos, crab-eating foxes, Greater Grison, and many others. We had no idea of the diversity of fauna at Finca Villa Barbara until we put in a few trail camera.

We also have another reserve, called Reserva Morrocoy, that is over 400 hectareas, or 1,000 acres. But that’s another story.

And we welcome visitors!

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Lillian

 

 

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lillianhall
Hi! My name is Lillian Hall and I am a US citizen who has been living in northern Colombia since 2012. I work with a wonderful Colombian organization called Sembrandopaz (Planting Peace) that combines environmental conservation with grassroots peacebuilding and community economic development in rural communities that are victims of the Colombian armed conflict. Specifically, we work in the subregion of Montes de Maria, about three hours south of the city of Cartagena, in an area that was once tropical dry forest. However, nationally less than 8% remains, over 50% of what remains is in Montes de Maria, but much of that is fragmented. The tropical dry forest is home to a plethora of interesting flora and fauna, including ocelots, tayras, yaguarundis, two- and three-toed sloths, foxes, two kinds of anteaters, armadillos, deer, agoutis, four kinds of primates, and many more. Sembrandopaz has two nature reserves: Finca Villa Barbara, outside of the city of Sincelejo, and Reserva Morrocoy, located between the city of El Carmen de Bolivar and the town of El Salado. A mere 12 years ago, Finca Villa Barbara was a small cattle ranch of  with overgrazed pastures and few trees. Now is it a gorgeous biodiverse holistic, organic farm and nature reserve, complete with most of the animals previously mentioned. Reserva Morrocoy is over one thousand acres of reserve which we received in December 2023 and which we barely have explored (since exploring means wacking down the vines and creating trails, something we are doing little by little due to the cost). Besides all the animals mentioned, and more, local people say they have seen jaguars and pumas; something we hope to document with our trail cameras. We have a rustic lodge available for visitors, and are promoting nature tourism (especially birdwatching) and scientific tourism since there is so much to discover. We do not have the funds to do a baseline study of flora, fauna, and fungi that is essential to creating plans for the future. We are on Instagram as Reserva_Morrocoy. Please check us out.  
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