Patagonia: Chile has a new national park
Patagonia Park, covering a surface area of 304,527.75 hectares, comprises land donated by Tompkins Conservation, together with the Jeinimeni and Lago Cochrane National Reserves and government land. The new park represents major progress in ecosystem conservation.
The decree creating the Patagonia National Park was published in the Official Gazette today, Tuesday, December 11. Chile will now have 40 national parks in the National System of Protected Wild Areas (Sistema Nacional de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas, SNASPE), administered by the National Forestry Service CONAF, which also includes national reserves and natural monuments.
The new national park, covering a surface area of 304,527.75 hectares, comprises land from the former Hacienda Chacabuco, donated by Tompkins Conservation, along with the Jeinimeni and Lago Cochrane National Reserves, and government land. It represents major progress in ecosystem conservation, particularly of the Patagonian steppe, which had previously been underrepresented in the SNASPE. Located in the transition zone between the arid steppe of Argentine Patagonia and the temperate forests of coigüe (nothofagus dombeyi) in Chilean Patagonia, the park encompasses an array of ecosystems, including grasslands, mountains, coigüe forests and wetlands.
CONAF Executive Director José Manuel Rebolledo said the creation of this national park “demonstrates that public and private initiatives can become actions that protect renewable natural resources and generate possibilities for local development by encouraging responsible, sustainable visits. Such actions are very important at the national and international levels, like this initiative, which is part of the Patagonia Parks Network.”
Carolina Morgado, Executive Director at Tompkins Conservation Chile, noted that the park network is becoming a reality. The new national park will serve as the first stop on the Patagonia Park Route, a scenic tour through 17 national parks and more than 60 neighboring communities. This milestone also enables progress to be made toward handing the parks over to CONAF and holding competitive tenders for the provision of tourism infrastructure such as a hotel, restaurant and campgrounds.
The new national park will protect a representative sample of the biological diversity of the Aysén Region. It will be home to many endangered species, including the nationally symbolic huemul (Southern Andean deer or Hippocamelus bisulcus), puma (puma concolor pearsoni), the South American grey fox (lycalopex griseus) and the South American red fox (lycalopex culpaeus), guanacos (Lama guanicoe) and several bat species. The guanaco is a member of the Camelidae family. The most abundant herbivore in Patagonia, it feeds on 75% of all the plant species in the Patagonian steppe. One of the most important species, guanacos prevent grass species from dominating the land, act as an excellent disperser and fertilizer, and have a high reproduction rate, serving as food for their carnivorous neighbors, especially pumas.
The park also features continental aquatic ecosystems with a wide range of birdlife. It has public infrastructure and offers great quality and potential for natural tourism, particularly the trails, lodge, restaurant, campgrounds, museum, visitor’s center and major infrastructure.
It is worth noting that with the creation of the Patagonia National Park, which comprises the Jeinimeni and Lago Cochrane national reserves, the National System of Protected Areas will now officially have 102 units: 40 national parks, 46 national reserves and 16 national monuments. With a surface area in excess of 15 million hectares, together they represent more than 20% of continental Chile.