Anthurium bogotense

The main threat to this species is habitat loss as a consequence of deforestation mainly due to agriculture, livestock grazing and logging. The impact to its habitat is visible from satellite imagery. The Andes in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela are notably more affected by human activities compared with other countries (Josse et al. 2009). Around 69% of the Andean forests in Colombia had been cleared by 1998, mainly for crops and grazing of beef cattle (Etter et al. 2006). In the high mountains of Colombia 27.5% of the upper forest limit has been transformed, with 66,766 ha of forest loss in the Eastern Mountain Range alone, and with 38.7% of area lost in the Distrito de Páramos de Boyacá, also mainly for grasslands and crops (Moreno et al. 2016). Climate change is another threat for the habitat of this species, as montane forests are predicted to be threatened by climate warming and drying under climate change (IPCC 2014) and the Tropical Andes in particular is expected to be one of the most affected regions (Malcolm et al. 2006, Gonzalez et al. 2010, Tovar et al. 2013). This species can also be threatened by illegal trade and collection in the wild, since it is marketed and sold internationally as an ornamental. However, no information was found on the extent of sale or demand for this species, nor on incidence of illegal trade and collection of wild plants.

Research is urgently needed to establish the current population size of this species, together with monitoring to detect any declines. This species is known to occur in seven protected areas in Colombia according to work done by Mendoza et al. (2018) and it would be important to evaluate the population status of this species within the national network of Natural Parks in Colombia (PNNC), as the network covers important areas of the Colombia Andes (J. Aguilar-Cano pers. comm. 2018).