WCS Southern Cone

WCS in Argentina, Chile, and the Falkland / Malvinas Islands
Miles of untouched shores with huge colonies of penguins, elephant seals and sea lions. Wide, open grasslands with armadillos, rheas, guanacos and opossums. Altiplano salt pans shimmering pink with thousands of flamingos. Glaciers, deep fiords, and sub-Antarctic rainforests. These are some of the unique wild lands and wildlife that WCS has been striving to conserve in the Southern Cone for over 40 years. WCS began working on the Argentine Patagonian coast in 1964 to protect spectacular colonies of Magellanic penguins, South American sea lions and southern elephant seals. In the 1980s and 90s, the program expanded to include many other marine wildlife species and sites in Argentine Patagonia, and more recently, the marine environments of Chile and the Falkland/Malvinas Islands. In 2004, WCS accepted a leadership role in managing a massive (272,000 ha.) wilderness on the island of Tierra del Fuego, marking a new stage in our long-term commitment to protecting the region’s unique old growth forests, grasslands, and wetlands, as well as extraordinary wildlife.

The Human Aspect
Human populations in the Southern Cone have historically relied heavily on natural resources for their subsistence. Exotic plantations, logging, livestock grazing, hunting, commercial fishing, mining, and ecotourism are some of the human activities which have impacted and continue to threaten wildlife and wild lands in the region. Most targeted species are important wildlife resources for regional or local economies.

Threats
Development pressures that increasingly threaten wilderness areas include oil exploration and drilling, mining, commercial fishing, logging and clear-cutting. The principal threat to the region’s marine wildlife is the rapidly expanding South Atlantic fishery. Other threats include pollution, human disturbance, and the introduction of alien species. In the Patagonian steppe and Andean environments of Argentina and Chile, native wildlife is intensively hunted and habitats have been long affected by livestock overgrazing, habitat degradation, introduced species, and logging.

WCS Activities
In Argentina, WCS is working to protect wildlife in the marine, steppe, and Andean environments of Patagonia. WCS continues to be instrumental in implementing the Patagonian Coastal Zone Management Plan, a program funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to protect coastal and marine wildlife and their habitats.

To provide a detailed picture of the current wildlife situation along Argentina’s 3,400-km coastline, several WCS projects are studying population trends, distribution at sea, diet, and habitat requirements of principal marine wildlife species, including penguins, sea lions and elephant seals. Since 2001, WCS has worked with local people to ensure the protection of the Jason Islands, in the northwest Falkland/Malvinas Islands. The Jasons are home to a spectacular breeding seabird community, including the largest colony of black-browed albatrosses in the world. To address conservation threats facing the regional pelagic environment, WCS is leading the Sea & Sky initiative, which seeks to protect a vast 2,000,000 km² "oceanscape" in the Southwest Atlantic - an epicenter of biological productivity.

WCS protects the wilderness and wildlife of the Patagonian steppe by employing a landscape approach to implement conservation in this biologically unique, severely threatened ecosystem. Our researchers are currently studying the culpeo fox, puma, mara and Andean cat, among other landscape species, in order to design appropriate conservation interventions.

On both sides of the Andes, WCS researchers study the secretive and highly endangered huemul deer and its habitat, continuing efforts that started in Chile in 1979. WCS is assisting the Chilean National Parks Service (CONAF) to protect the Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, the last stronghold of the huemul deer and one of the largest protected areas in Latin America.

After several decades of support, WCS has strengthened many partner organizations in the Southern Cone. Our collaborative work with organizations, researchers and governments has contributed greatly to the implementation of wildlife management and protection, and the designation of new protected areas throughout the region.

Important Next Steps

• Work with Chilean partners to establish a conservation program for properties on Tierra del Fuego, taking into account the needs of local communities.
• Develop new partnerships with governments, NGOs, universities, and research institutions and find ways to strengthen local capacities for conservation.
• Continue to evaluate conservation priorities, conduct relevant research, and apply results in order to produce effective outcomes for wildlife conservation.