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Southern Chile
Results
Since the late 1990s, WWF has worked to confront threats to Southern Chile. We partner with local communities to provide conservation training and improve livelihoods, collaborate with the private sector to promote sustainable business practices and craft and advocate the adoption of more stringent government regulations to protect people and nature.
Partnering with indigenous communities
On December 17, 2007, Chile's President awarded the prestigious Bicentennial Seal to WWF's community conservation project. WWF launched the program with the Mapu Lahual Indigenous Association and New Zealand International Aid and Development Agency to benefit nine Huilliche communities living along the coast of the Osorno Province in some of Chile's poorest counties. The project helps conserve the environment and strengthen indigenous and communities by developing sustainable economic alternatives such as ecotourism and the marketing of handicrafts and canned goods.
Hoffens A Pehuenche man in traditional dress at the land title ceremony.
© WWF-Chile
In another December celebration, WWF joined the indigenous Pehuenche community of Quinquén in a ceremony marking the successful end to a 17 year struggle over land rights and the conservation of araucaria forests in Southern Chile. On that day, the government of Chile formally recognized the community's rights to 22,000 acres of araucaria forest. WWF and partner organizations worked closely with the communities to successfully navigate their lengthy land titling and land planning process.
WWF report prompts Chilean salmon farming reforms
A June 2007 WWF study documenting the negative environmental impacts of the salmon industry on Chile's freshwater lakes has produced improvements in Chilean aquaculture practices and laid the foundation for future freshwater conservation.
Within the last decade, salmon farming in Chile's Patagonian lakes has doubled, contaminating these freshwater ecosystems and releasing large numbers of escaped salmon into Chile's lakes and rivers. Salmon are not native to Chile, and this invasive carnivorous fish threatens almost 90 percent of Chile's native fish species. WWF's study urges reforms that would conserve Chile's lakes and increase the country's competitiveness in the global salmon trade.
Marine Harvest - the world's largest salmon farming company - answered WWF's call to action and will retire all its lake concessions in Chile over the next five years. The total value of its divestment could reach $63 million, with an additional pledge of up to $40 million to build more sustainable land-based plants. This represents a major change in Chilean aquaculture and is another step towards lasting freshwater conservation in Chile.
Moving the forestry industry towards sustainability
In 2006, WWF awarded the Leaders for a Living Planet award to Chile's third largest timber company, MASISA, in recognition of a series of commitments made to strengthen their Forest Stewardship Council certification. Their pledge includes completion of a comprehensive assessment of all of their holdings in Chile (353,360 acres) to identify High Conservation Value Forests, as well as the development of a portfolio of protected areas beginning with three properties in the Coastal Range. Additionally, the company pledged to continue to develop tools and pilot experiences to increase benefits for local communities.
Caleta Cóndor, Mapu Lahual Indigenous Parks.
© WWF/Rodrigo Catalán
Creating a network of Mapul Lahual indigenous parks
In October 2006, Chile inaugurated its first parks created and owned by indigenous peoples. The Mapu Lahual Indigenous Parks form part of a community-run ecotourism project that includes about 62 miles of walking trails through forests inhabited by Huiliche indigenous communities, community centers and camping areas. These parks are the result of five years of work by the Mapu Lahual Indigenous Association, located in the Coastal Range of the Osorno Providence. WWF and the Chilean Forest Service provided technical and financial support for the effort.
Valdivian Coastal Reserve, Chile
© WWF/David Tecklin
Valdivian Coastal Reserve protects Chilean rainforest
2005’s inauguration of the Valdivian Coastal Reserve -147,500 acres of coastal temperate rainforest in southern Chile - marked a major advance in overcoming an area of clear-cutting and forest conversion in the area, and made way for new public access and cooperation for local community development. We are working with our partner, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), to establish a management system for the reserve and leading an extension program with neighboring communities to generate "green micro-enterprises" and ecotourism activities which strengthen the reserve's value to local people. WWF and TNC are also working with local communities in neighboring areas to ensure their traditional land uses remain part of the overall strategy of the new reserve and to promote compatible local economic development. compatible local economic development.
"Cascada Chile" wood chip mill cancelled
In 2001, the Boise Cascade Corporation cancelled plans to build what would have been the world's largest wood chip mill and oriented strand board factory in the heart of the Southern Chile region. The $180 million project would have accelerated the toll that logging and other activities are taking on the region's forests and the wildlife that depend on them. WWF insisted that a new project of this size must be accompanied by forestry plans which ensured the sustainability of its resource base as well as adequate environmental analysis. WWF brought this message home in meetings with the company, and a coordinated campaign with other environmental organizations and scientists.
Notable Accomplishments
2000s
- Stopped plans for the Cascada Chile mill, saving up to 9,000 acres of native forests each year
- Partnered with the Mapu Lahual Indigenous Association to create the first Network of Indigenous Parks
- Jointly created the Valdivian Coastal Reserve to protect a critical parcel of intact Chilean coastal rain forest
- Secured a commitment by MASISA— Chile’s third largest timber company—to expand the protection of native forests on their land
- Chile’s President awarded its national Bicentennial Seal to the WWF-supported Blue Whale Center to recognize the importance of a proposed marine protected area in the Gulf of Corcovado
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