Protected Areas in Chilean Patagonia CARLOS CUEVAS
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REPRINTED FROM PROTECTING THE WILD PARKS AND WILDERNESS, THE FOUNDATION FOR CONSERVATION Protected Areas in Chilean Patagonia CARLOS CUEVAS PROTECTING THE WILD: PARKS AND WILDERNESS, THE FOUNDATION FOR CONSERVATION Edited by George Wuerthner, Eileen Crist, and Tom Butler Published by the Foundation for Deep Ecology and Island Press Distributed by Island Press | www.islandpress.org PROTECTING THE WILD Requested citation: C. Cuevas, “Protected Areas in Chilean Patagonia,” in PARKS AND WILDERNESS, Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness, the Foundation for Conservation, THE FOUNDATION FOR CONSERVATION ed. G. Wuerthner, E. Crist, and T. Butler (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2015), 226–241. Edited by George Wuerthner, Eileen Crist, and Tom Butler CARLOS CUEVAS, a forestry engineer and ecologist, is recognized for his key role toward establishing more than 2 million acres of private and public protected areas, terrestrial and marine, in Chilean Patagonia, equivalent to 3 percent of all protected lands and waters established in Chile since 1907. Working closely with Douglas and Kristine Tompkins for twenty years, Cuevas has assisted in the creation of the Tictoc-Melimoyu Marine Protected Area, Corcovado National Park, Yendegaia National Park, Pumalín Nature Sanctuary, and the Valle Chacabuco Park—the future Patagonia National Park. ESTERN PATAGONIA IS A LAND of deep con- to hunting, gathering, and fishing. Human numbers re- trasts and impressive landscapes, extend- mained low and Patagonia still is the least inhabited part ing 15 degrees of latitude, or roughly 1,000 of the country. Until the early nineteenth century, five W miles, along the Pacific side of southernmost distinct native peoples populated western Patagonia. In South America. The Antarctic continent is only 800 miles the coast, the Chonos lived in the northern fjords, up to away from Cape Horn—Chilean Patagonia’s southern tip. the Taitao peninsula; the Yamana or Yaghan lived south Covering 250,000 square kilometers, roughly one United of Tierra del Fuego, to the southern tip of the continent, Kingdom or three times the size of Austria, western Pa- Cape Horn; between those groups, from the Taitao pen- tagonia is home to less than 2 percent of Chile’s current insula to the Strait of Magellan lived the Kaweshkar or population. (In this essay the term “western Patagonia” Alacalufes. With little or no contact with the former, two refers to the present-day Chilean province of Palena and groups of hunters lived in the grasslands east of the Andes, regions of Aysen and Magallanes.) the Tehuelche on the mainland and the Ona or Selk’nam The dominant factor that shaped the landscape we see on the island of Tierra del Fuego. Their numbers likely today is glacial action. Almost all the land was covered by ice never exceeded 10,000 people among all the groups. 2–3 million years ago until just ten thousand years ago when The first European to reach Patagonia was Ferdinand the ice retreated, a very short time in the evolution of life Magellan, a Portuguese captain serving the Spanish crown, on the planet. Two ice fields, the largest outside Antarctica who entered the strait now bearing his name in 1520. Span- and Greenland, are the last visible reminders of the glacial ish colonists made an ill-fated attempt to settle the Strait of era. The most prominent sign of glaciers shaping the area, Magellan during the sixteenth century; the English corsair however, is the ubiquitous presence of coastal fjords, the Thomas Cavendish rescued one survivor and bestowed retreating ice leaving behind not only peninsulas but some the name “Port Famine” to the once-proud City of King 10,000 islands as well. While the outer coast is about 1,000 Philip. This settlement was the first but not the last envi- miles long, the total coastline, factoring in all the islands and ronmental blunder in Patagonia motivated by decisions fjords, amounts to some 50,000 miles. Volcanic eruptions made from afar and ignorant of local conditions. Few nav- have shaped life in Patagonia—especially the resulting ash, a igators reached Patagonian shores in the three centuries main component for soil origin and characteristics. after discovery; the Spaniards established trade and supply The abiotic and biotic characteristics of the ocean are lines through the Isthmus of Panama and tried to keep out conditioned by the South Pacific Gyre, flowing from west competitors like the English or the Dutch who neverthe- to east. Upon reaching the continent the current is divided less came when Spain was at war with them in Europe. between a segment flowing south around Cape Horn and Francis Drake made the second passage of the strait, and another, the Humboldt Current, flowing north. Both cold the Dutch captains Willem Schouten and Isaac Le Maire water currents strongly influence the country’s climate. discovered Cape Horn in 1616. More than a century later, The water flow and associated upwelling areas give rise to in 1740, Admiral Lord Anson crossed through the Strait of the most productive fisheries in the world. Yet the region’s Magellan en route to attack the Spanish forts in the Pacific. rich and complex marine ecosystems are poorly under- Massachusetts whalers and seal hunters came in numbers stood because research has focused on only a few species after American independence, to the point that Americans of commercial value; Patagonia’s terrestrial ecosystems, were generally known as “Bostoneses.” with characteristics and dynamics found nowhere else on One distinguished visitor, Charles Darwin, spent Earth, are better understood. over a year (1832) navigating Chilean Patagonia’s stormy waters and carrying out research ashore as naturalist of Population and land use HMS Beagle, charged with mapping the coast of the for- mer Spanish colonies. Darwin noted the land’s charac- More than ten thousand years ago, humans arrived in teristics—glaciers flowing into the sea at the latitude of western Patagonia; the Monte Verde archaeological site southern England, the mix of plant and animal species remains the oldest scientifically dated human habitation not found elsewhere, and the impact of volcanic activity. site in all of the Americas (14,800 years before present). Darwin perceived very clearly that the limiting factor for The harsh climate and cold summers did not allow crops agriculture and life in general was the very cold summers to reach maturity, so indigenous peoples were restricted and not the average yearly temperatures; his observations 2 CARLOS CUEVAS are still valid today. In the book written when he was not Low-grade coal was known to exist since the nine- yet thirty years old, he made passing negative comments teenth century and small mines operated irregularly de- about the indigenous inhabitants, based on very superfi- pending on international prices. In the last twenty years cial observations. Later in life a wiser Darwin changed his two large coal-mining operations have been developed views after having access to data gathered by missionaries, within a 100-mile radius of Punta Arenas, with an estimat- such as a Selk’nam language dictionary with more than ed 4 billion tons underground looming large as a potential 30,000 terms showing the ability of the indigenous people threat. Drilling for oil was successful in 1945, production of Patagonia to describe, understand, and adapt success- peaked in the 1980s and is declining, but the environmen- fully to the harsh environment. tal consequences will remain for a long time. Further north The permanent presence of a nonindigenous popula- in the Aysen Region there is no coal or oil, but salmon tion dates only from the middle of the nineteenth century; farming (salmon is a nonnative species) has surged (Chile this stemmed from government decision and not sponta- is the world’s second-largest exporter), reaching levels of neous movement by settlers seeking land to make a living. density within pens and numbers of floating fish pens per Chilean authorities established in 1842 a small garrison coastal mile that would be unacceptable in other countries later turned into a penal colony. Punta Arenas (“Sandy that have issued and enforce strict regulations for salmon Point” on the Royal Navy maps drawn by the HMS Beagle aquaculture. Massive escape of these nonnative species is officers) languished for decades until steamships able to causing the degradation of native ecosystems while fish- negotiate the narrows of the Strait of Magellan replaced meal that falls to the bottom through the pens has ren- the tall ships using the Cape Horn route. At that time the dered lifeless large areas of the ocean. port revitalized, becoming a coaling and supply station While industrial salmon production is the major and serving as a base for seal and whale hunters operating threat to Chile’s coastal ecosystems, the potential for in South American and Antarctic waters. large-scale hydropower development of Patagonia’s wild Around 1880 the government brought sheep from rivers presents the main conservation challenge on land. the Falkland Islands and kick-started large-scale, wool- Plans for a series of huge dams proposed by private cor- producing farms by selling and leasing extensive tracts porations for key Patagonian rivers were sidetracked in of grasslands deemed “vacant”—ignoring the existence 2014 when the government withdrew one of the permits of indigenous peoples who lived there and hunted local issued (to HydroAysen). Years of campaigning had rallied wildlife. Near the Strait of Magellan, the operation suc- a majority of Chileans to strongly oppose such dam con- ceeded financially but ruined indigenous communities; in struction, but proponents are determined and have the the present-day Aysen Region further north, the “Magel- right to reapply. Large dams have many negative effects, lanic model” of sheep grazing floundered due to lack of including the often-overlooked loss of landscape values, suitable grasslands.