Forest Reserve Thomas van der Hammen, Protected area in Suba, Colombia

The Thomas van der Hammen Forest Reserve covers 1,395 hectares between the Eastern Hills of Bogotá and the Bogotá River. Wetlands and forested zones form a connected system for plants and animals of the region.

The government declared the area a protected zone in 2000 after a Dutch geologist spent years researching here. His name was later given to the reserve to honor his scientific work on the landscape and ecology.

The reserve is named after Thomas van der Hammen, a Dutch-Colombian geologist who spent years studying the Bogotá savanna. In the Las Mercedes forest, a cedar 12 metres tall stands among native palo mulato, raque and arrayán trees. The swamp daisy Senecio carbonelli, declared extinct in 1997, was rediscovered in La Conejera Wetland in 1998 and recorded again in 2015.

The public administration provides maps and environmental information online for visitors. Paths lead through different parts of the reserve, letting you observe the landscape and wildlife.

More than 180 bird species live in the forests and wetlands, some of which appear only during certain seasons. A small rail species occurs exclusively in this highland region and is found nowhere else.