The Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) from University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been working on the Paramos of Colombia since 1970, collecting information on different aspects of plant ecology. The Santa Marta and Perijá paramo complex dataset is generated from five sources. 1. A study on the vegetation of tropical ecosystems, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, particularly in the sector Buritaca - La Cumbre, by A. Cleef and O. Rangel in 1984 (in van der Hammen and Ruiz, 1984). 2. A study on Andean Paramo's ecology by H. Sturm and O. Rangel done in 1985. 3. Field data from professor Antoine Cleef derived from the ECOANDES project) in 1984 4. A study about the paramo vegetation in the north of Colombia (Sierra nevada de Santa Marta and Serrania Perija) by J.H. Pinto-Zarate and O. Rangel-Ch in 2010. 5. A study about the high mountain vegetation of Perija, done by O. Rangel-Ch and H. Arrellano-P in 2007. All studies provide information on the occurrence and location of 1506 plant species from the Paramo in this area sampled in 91 releves. For the purpose of the GBIF data-publishing, vegetation releve data were converted into species occurrence data.