Cape Froward: Protocol signed to create new National Park
It will provide protection to the southernmost populations of species such as the south Andean deer and the puma.
The care and protection of our environment continues to be one of the hallmarks of this government. Today, this commitment was reinforced with the signing of a protocol to create the new Cape Froward National Park in the Magallanes Region.
In the presence of Environment Minister Maisa Rojas, National Assets Minister Marcela Sandoval and Agriculture Minister Esteban Valenzuela, the protocol was signed to establish a park on public land and land donated by Fundación Rewilding.
Characteristics of Cape Froward National Park
The proposal to create the Cape Froward National Park includes a total area of 121,624.9 hectares (300,542 acres). Of this area, 4,010.47 hectares (9,910 acres) belong to the Cape Froward Protected National Asset, 24,122.43 hectares (59,608 acres) correspond to the Batchelor River Protected National Asset, and 93,492 hectares (231,024 acres) is land donated by Fundación Rewilding Chile.
The territory to be protected is the southernmost point on the American continent. It is located at the southern end of the Brunswick Peninsula, municipality of Punta Arenas, in the Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica Region.
The landscape and geographical features have been structured through different geological processes in which the glacial influence has been the main shaper.
The initiative will provide protection to the following vegetational floors:
- Low southern Andean shrubland of Bolax gummifera.
- Azorella selago, southern coastal evergreen forest of Nothofagus betuloides.
- Embothrium coccineum, southern coastal peat bog of Astelia pumila.
- Donatia fascicularis, southern Andean grassland of Nassauvia pygmaea.
- Nassauvia lagascae, temperate southern Andean mixed forest of Nothofagus betuloides.
- Nothofagus pumilio and temperate southern inland peat bog of Sphagnum magellanicum / Schoenus antarcticus.
Additionally, the creation of the Cape Froward National Park will provide protection to the habitat of the southernmost continental populations of important and charismatic species such as the south Andean deer and the puma. Furthermore, the river mouths, bays and coastlines are important environments for the marine otter and numerous bird species, including the kelp goose.
Finally, the entire territory to be protected is considered ancestral by the Kawésqar indigenous communities.