Colombia's Tayrona National Park safe from hotel development

The Colombian government has suspended a hotel project in the Tayrona National Park that included the construction of 12 cabins, to prevent any possible damage to the ecosystems of this natural reserve.

"The decision has been taken to apply the preventive measure of suspending all activities permitted by the park license for the Los Ciruelos project, which is in Tayrona Park," the director of the national environmental licenses authority, or Anla.

The suspension will be in force until Anla receives technical and scientific guidelines from National Natural Parks, the agency managing Tayrona, on which the final decision will be based.

The decision is taken following instructions of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the environment and development ministry.

On monday, Santos said the project would not go forward.

The initiative, which would be developed by the private sector, consists of 12 cabins, two access docks and two floating docks in this northern Colombian reserve.

The director of National Natural Parks, Julia Miranda, said that in the 3 hectares (7 1/2 acres) comprising the Los Ciruelos tourism project, is a tropical dry forest, an ecosystem that in Colombia is threatened with extinction.

The license for the work was issued during the presidency of Alvaro Uribe, who governed from 2.002 to 2.010.