Described Tapirus terrestris colombianus by the North American mammalogist Philip Hershkovitz in 1954 , based on a young male specimen captured in the Department of Cesar, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Today, this sub-species can be found in some forests of Boyacá, Santander, Norte de Santander, Cesar, Bolívar, Magdalena, Antioquia, Sucre, Córdoba, La Guajira and possibly Chocó. The tapir of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the most threatened of all, as this is a small, isolated population surrounded by strong human pressure.

On December 21, 2007, the first photo of the tapir of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is known in the Buenavista nature reserve, made by the former hunter, now a conservationist, WIllian Peñaloza "Chapolo" , thanks to the Autonomous University of Mexico that donated three analog camera traps and the Tapir Preservation Fund that contributed to the training of farmers and indigenous people on the handling of these cameras and their installation in the jungle. This is how the first photographic evidence was achieved, after the report by Ralf Strewe with Cristobal Navarro in 2002 and Emilio Constantino on the presence of the tapir in La Guajira - Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in 2005 . Subsequently, the Nativa Foundation together with the NGO Defensores de la Naturaleza developed scientific projects with the support of Corpoguajira, to learn about these animals through studies on the current and historical distribution of the tapir in the Sierra Nevada , Contributions to the use of habitat and the first genetic investigations of this population .

The conservation work of the Fundación Nativa around the tapir of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta during the last 15 years has allowed us to experience the evolution of the social environment and its impact on the jungles where these mammals still live. At the beginning of the XXI century, the territory between the basins of the Palomino and Rioancho rivers in La Guajira were inhabited by indigenous people, peasants, armed groups and tapirs in their jungles, the cocaine economy prevailed. This condition made it difficult to carry out scientific research in the field, however, the leadership of local farmer Carlos Fernandez Rueda made it possible for the studies to be developed.

Indeed, many trees were cut down to establish coca leaf crops, in several cases forests that had recovered from the marijuana bonanza. The armed euphoria to protect this lucrative business made it clear that it was not a good idea to go to the jungles to hunt, due to the great probability of meeting death. This war condition in a certain way prevented the hunting of various tapirs for a long time and in the same way stopped the growth of the cattle frontier.

The atmosphere of fear reached unsuspected levels until the Colombian government was able to control it and eliminate the commercial cultivation of the coca leaf on the land with the presence of tapirs. Today the majority of peasants sold their land holdings to indigenous people, there is no war and the old illegal crops are transformed into pastures for cattle mainly. This new reality in the territories of the tapirs in the Sierra Nevada shows the URGENCY of activating a strategy consistent with scientific information and what has been learned about the indigenous and peasant social processes that occur in the place, to stop the hunt, the destruction of the tapir forests, guaranteeing their healthy presence and promoting economic activities in the communities of influence that are compatible with the biodiversity present.