conservation action and protected areasAround 50,000 km², or 12.8 percent, of the original land area of the Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests is under official protection, and fortunately most of it is in protected areas in IUCN categories I to IV. Protected areas include national parks, national reserves, national monuments, and nature sanctuaries. All Araucaria trees are also protected as national monuments, an unusual and creative conservation mechanism. The total area under protection, much of it in many small reserves, however, is inadequate to conserve biodiversity in the long run. Particularly in the northern part of the rainforest zone, protected areas tend to be at mid-elevations and concentrated in the Andean Cordillera, leaving the richest rainforest areas along the coast practically unprotected. While a limited level of scientific knowledge about existing species hampers effective conservation in the Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests, the biggest long-term conservation challenge is the land tenure situation. Practically all land not currently included in government protected areas is privately owned, and there is no public land available for new protected areas. Purchasing private land for protection by the government is complicated and expensive. There is a provision in Chilean Environmental Law allowing for private reserves, and Pumalin Park, a well-known private conservation initiative, is located in the rainforest zone of this hotspot. Effective long-term biodiversity conservation in Central Chile will depend on cooperation between the government, the private sector, and individual citizens. In November 2003, an important conservation step was taken when The Nature Conservancy, in partnership with the CI’s Global Conservation Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and local conservation organizations, acquired 60,000 hectares (600km²) of biologically rich temperate rainforest in an open auction. Part of this land will be cooperatively managed with three adjacent national reserves and hopefully will eventually be elevated to national park status. The rest of the land will be owned and managed by a new Chilean conservation organization.
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© Pablo Valenzuela
Villarrica National Park protects majestic Araucaria and Antarctic beech trees.
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