Corales del Rosario y San Bernardo

Corales del Rosario y de San Bernardo National Natural Park was established in 1977 in the Colombian Caribbean, off the coast of the department of Bolívar and a short distance from Cartagena de Indias, and protects some 1,200 km², almost all of it marine.

It comprises two coral archipelagos — the Rosario Islands and San Bernardo — along with Isla Fuerte and several shoals, and preserves the best-developed reef complexes on the Colombian Caribbean continental shelf. The system includes coral reefs, seagrass meadows, mangroves and coastal lagoons, a set that works interdependently: the mangrove holds back sediment, the seagrass stabilises the bottom and the reef protects the coast from the swell.

The reefs have suffered considerable deterioration over recent decades from several combined causes: the sedimentation and freshwater input of the Canal del Dique, opened to connect Cartagena with the Magdalena River, bleaching from the warming of the sea, stony coral tissue loss disease and the mass tourist pressure coming from Cartagena. The park runs coral restoration and visitor management programmes, and Afro-Colombian communities with rights over the territory live within the park.