Places

Patagonia

Challenges

Both offshore and inland, Patagonia faces serious threats, including fishing and oil exploration off the coast and extractive industry and unsustainable agriculture and ranching on land.

Our Goal

Preserve Patagonia's wild treasures by partnering with local governments and communities to promote sustainable land use, wildlife-friendly management practices, and the creation of protected areas.

How Will We Get There?

Our strategies include:

• Help create large, integrated networks of marine, coastal, and terrestrial protected areas.
• Design, establish, and promote sustainable and wildlife-friendly ranching practices that reduce human/animal conflicts and help conserve or restore core habitat.
• Support essential research to direct conservation strategies for key species, including guanacos, condors, flamingos, and felids on land; sea elephants and seabirds along the coast; and cetaceans and sharks offshore.
• Establish informal and formal education initiatives to build the capacity of the current and next generation of conservation stakeholders in the region.

Why WCS?

WCS is well established in Patagonia. Working in both Chile and Argentina, as well as the Falkland/Malvinas Islands, where we own the Jason Islands, we have solid partnerships with public and private stakeholders, and we are the go-to organization for sound, robust, scientific approaches to conservation. Our work includes the management, with our partners, of Chile's Karukinka Natural Park, a Rhode Island–sized reserve that's home to significant wildlife, including 60 percent of Chile's guanacos.

Country Programs:
WCS Argentina
WCS Chile

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