UACh researchers present critical information for the effective protection of national parks and reserves

After analyzing the cartography, the decrees of each area and the opinions of the National Comptroller of the Republic, researchers from this program evaluated the limits of eight State Protected Wilderness Areas (ASP) located in Chilean Patagonia, and estimated that the marine portion -coastal of seven of them adds up to at least 6.3 million hectares distributed among the Kawésqar, Las Guaitecas and Katalalixar national reserves, and the Bernardo O’Higgins, Alberto de Agostini, Laguna San Rafael and Isla Magdalena national parks.

To these must be added the marine-coastal portion of the Cabo de Hornos National Park, whose limits appear in its official creation decree, but do not coincide with the official map. Regarding the latter, it is worth mentioning that the regional office of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) Magallanes and the Omora Foundation are working to clarify the limits and dimensions of this park.

The information shared with the CNAP, likewise, shows that the marine portion belonging to these ASPs has not been directly considered in the country’s public policies, such as in the AICHI goals, or in official State cadastres such as those of the MMA or SUBPESCA, excluding , therefore, of the efforts and budgets for coastal-marine management and protection.

“We understand that the geographical difficulties and the diversity of actors that converge in the administration and supervision of the marital in our country, have made it difficult to manage and protect the marine portion of the protected areas”, Guala added, further noting that “for the same reason, a few years ago we decided to try to contribute to the investigation and analysis of these areas, and collaborate with CONAF in the efforts they have made to manage the marine-coastal zone of the Wild Protected Areas, even though they do not have the resources and technical and logistical capacities for this”.

The effective protection of the 6.3 million hectares of coastal-marine ecosystems has become critical in the eyes of specialists, since they have been exposed to different factors that threaten their ecological integrity and conservation. One of them is intensive aquaculture, particularly salmon farming: there are a total of 411 aquaculture concessions within the State protected areas, and 134 new concessions are pending.

Only in terms of national parks, within the Alberto de Agostini National Park there are 19 salmon farming concessions, 3 in the Laguna San Rafael National Park and 4 in Isla Magdalena National Park. This, despite the fact that the law explicitly prohibits aquaculture within this conservation figure, they pointed out from the UACh.

“We hope that this information will be considered by the ministries and services of the State to advance towards the inter-institutional coordination of the entities with attributions in the coastal-marine area and, in particular, that the National Property Registry Unit regularizes the limits of these areas. protected. This is not only essential to support the work of CONAF in the administration of these areas, but also to achieve the effective protection of the Chilean Patagonia marsh”, said Aldo Farías, researcher and executive coordinator of the Austral Patagonia Program.

It should be remembered that the National Committee for Protected Areas was created in 2014 with the aim of promoting the Action Plan for Protected Areas led by the Ministry of the Environment, to advance in the creation and consolidation of a National System of Protected Areas that would allow the closure of the gaps related to the official and effective protection of representative samples of the terrestrial and marine ecosystems of Chile.

It is currently made up of representatives from the Ministry of National Assets; the National Forestry Corporation; the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture; the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service; the National Monuments Council; the Environment and Maritime Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the General Directorate of the Maritime Territory and the Merchant Marine; the Undersecretariat for Tourism, the National Tourism Service and the Undersecretary for the Armed Forces, coordinated by the Ministry of the Environment.

All the institutions that make up the CNAP received a copy of the technical study called “Analysis of Marine Coverage in Wild Protected Areas in Patagonia”, with its corresponding cartographic information, and the scientific report “Coastal-Marine Protection in Patagonia: Present Situation, Advances and Challenges”, published in the book “Conservation in Chilean Patagonia: Evaluation of Knowledge, Opportunities and Challenges” in November of last year.

These reports complement the collective work of the Patagonia Mar y Tierra Group, made up of organizations that, together with CONAF, promote the effective management of national parks and the protection of the ecosystems of Chilean Patagonia.

Puerto Aguirre, Hiuchas Islands, Aysén Region.