Chile
- Tierra del Fuego Video
- Established in 2004 through a gift from the global investment bank Goldman Sachs, the Karukinka reserve in Tierra Del Fuego represents a major investment in the conservation of patagonia’s ecology and species.
- ©WCS
- Tierra Del Fuego Photo
- ©Kent Redford
- Guanaco in Tierra del Fuego Photo
- WCS is studying how guanacos adapt to seasonal changes in Tierra del Fuego, as well as how livestock grazing and other human activities affect them.
- Julie Larsen Maher©WCS
Long, narrow and for the most part high, Chile serves as the spine of South America, stretching from the northern Andes to the sub-Antarctic, windswept coastline of Tierra del Fuego. Both the western (Chilean) and eastern (Argentine) portions of Tierra del Fuego are home to large stands of old-growth deciduous lenga forests, peat bogs, Andean meadows, river systems, fjords, glaciers and spectacular snow-capped mountains. Near Tierra del Fuego is the country’s spectacular Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, one of the largest protected areas in South America.
Elsewhere in Chile are miles of pristine shores that support huge colonies of rockhopper and Magellanic penguins, elephant seals and sea lions; wide, open grasslands with guanacos—a wild relative of the llama—as well as armadillos, rheas, culpeo foxes and opossums; altiplano salt pans shimmering pink with thousands of flamingos; and the towering wilderness of the high Andes.
Fast Facts
- Tierra del Fuego holds the world’s largest intact stands of sub-Antarctic forests
- A portion of these forests are under protection, thanks in part to the financial company Goldman Sachs’s gift of 680,000 acres of wild lands in Chilean Tierra del Fuego to WCS
- The name “Tierra del Fuego” or “Land of Fire” was given to the island by Ferdinand Magellan in 1520; however, the Selk’nam indigenous people who originally lived there called their land “Karukinka”
- The largest wild population of guanacos lives in Tierra del Fuego
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Challenges
Significant portions of the Chilean wilderness have been given legal protection, particularly in the southernmost region, Magallanes. But broad collaboration among numerous stakeholders—governments, local people, and industries—is required to transform those parks into effective conservation areas. Karukinka, a model for creating successful partnerships to promote conservation, can serve as a roadmap.
Chile’s people have historically relied heavily on natural resources for their subsistence. Exotic plantations, logging, livestock grazing, hunting, commercial fishing, and mining are some of the human activities that have affected and continue to threaten wildlife and wild lands in the region. The remnant herds of guanacos suffer from habitat loss and competition from livestock. Their migration has become one of the most endangered natural phenomena in Latin America.
Over the last century, exotic species have dramatically altered Tierra del Fuego’s terrestrial and freshwater environments. Introduced beaver populations have expanded rapidly in the absence of top predators, causing extensive damage to forests and altering natural water flows. Sheep, cattle, and rabbits compete with native herbivores and may transmit diseases to guanacos. Feral minks may be killing large numbers of native ground-nesting birds. 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 Responds
The establishment of the Karukinka reserve is a major accomplishment for the conservation of Patagonia as a whole, establishing a model for combating invasive species, protecting unique terrestrial and marine landscapes, and running successful private-public partnerships. WCS has also devised plans to build trails and visitors’ centers and promote ecotourism in southern Tierra del Fuego. This will make a wider audience passionate about conserving Karukinka and the surrounding land, as well as provide economic alternatives to local residents, who can develop sustainable businesses around our conservation work. Local residents have become involved with WCS through successful education programs, and are now active partners in the efforts to preserve Karukinka and promote conservation activities in Chilean Patagonia.
Karukinka’s 290 square miles of peat lands, surrounded by water, are among its most valuable ecosystems for their ability to trap greenhouse gases, and for the fresh water they provide to the island’s human and wildlife residents. WCS is currently working to document how much carbon the peat keeps out of our atmosphere, which threats it faces, and how we can take steps to preserve it. In the near term, WCS is working to sell carbon offset credits generated from the protection of the peat bogs. Introducing funds from the global carbon market to Karukinka can provide long-term, sustainable funding to conserve and protect these precious lands.
WCS researchers are studying how guanacos adapt to seasonal changes in the landscape and how livestock grazing and other human impacts outside Karukinka reserve affect them. Our work will illuminate key factors that affect guanaco distribution, abundance, and social composition, as well as those that show migratory patterns.
WCS Projects
While peat lands represent a tiny portion of the earth compared to forests, they store double the amount of carbon. WCS is working to safeguard the peat bogs of Chile's Karukinka, and to sell carbon offsets to help guarantee their preservation.
From the Newsroom
The Wildlife Without Borders–Latin America and the Caribbean Program has supported conservation projects since 1990, including work by WCS in Tierra del Fuego, Chile.
WCS applauds the inclusion of forestry provisions in the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which paves the way to comprehensive climate change policy.
Eight guanacos in Chile’s Karukinka Reserve are wearing radio-collars as part of a study to preserve a critical population of these animals, known for their spectacular migration.