EXPLORE HUILO HUILO BIOLOGICAL RESERVE & THE VALDIVIAN COASTAL RESERVE MODELS FOR PRIVATE LAND CONSERVATION EXPLORE The Valdivian Temperate RAINFOREST
Travel to Chile for a seven day seminar hosted by The Aspen Institute and The Nature Conservancy.
CONTENTS << CONSERVATION IN CHILE
<< ABOUT THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
<< ABOUT THE ASPEN INSTITUTE’S ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
<< ASPEN SEMINAR FORMAT
<< PROPOSED ITINERARY
<< ESTIMATED COST CONSERVATION IN CHILE Chile’s Valdivian Coastal Range, in the world’s second-largest Purchased by the Conservancy like Chile itself, is long and temperate rainforest. in 2003, the 150,000-acre narrow: a rugged strip of green Valdivian Coastal Reserve mountains running parallel The Nature Conservancy in southern Chile has between the snowy wall of began working with partners become a testing ground for the Andes and the southern in Chile in 1997. Despite an managing large landscapes for coast of the Pacific. During the extensive park system, many conservation. The Conservancy last Ice Age, this geography of Chile’s prized species and works closely with people and created a refuge that enabled richest diversity of plants businesses in neighboring an extraordinary array of and animals lay beyond park fishing villages and indigenous unusual plants and animals boundaries—often on private communities to maintain to flourish. The range is filled lands. That realization led traditional land uses and with superlatives—smallest the Conservancy to launch encourages sustainable local deer, third-largest woodpecker, an unprecedented effort to economic development as oldest marsupial, second- protect the region’s biodiversity part of the Reserve’s overall longest-lived tree species. by working with private conservation strategy. And all of these rarities live landowners.
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM
The Aspen Institute’s Energy nature and society in remote The Aspen Institute and The and Environment Program locations. Now it is partnering Nature Conservancy invite provides a neutral forum with the Conservancy for an you to travel with them to this for constructive dialogue on extraordinary opportunity remote part of the world so complex issues and challenges to explore the meaning and that you can fully experience specific to energy and the challenge of conservation in the wonder of the area, while environment. The Institute the 21st century in the rare learning from and sharing ideas aspires to increase knowledge, forest ecosystem of Chile with other participants. broaden perspectives and through a special Aspen enhance the ability of leaders Institute seminar-based to solve problems. The Institute expedition. has significant experience leading seminars on ASPEN INSTITUTE SEMINAR This experiential seminar will introduce participants to the debates and changes surrounding conservation and will include readings from the Energy and Environment Program’s Nature and Society Seminar.
Our goal is to offer a platform for global thinkers and leaders to explore conservation and human well-being in the context of Chile’s rich natural resources. Participants will share their ideas about how economic development and natural resource protection is interconnected and discuss past successes and ongoing obstacles to conservation.
Seminar participants also will learn about the Conservancy’s work with people and businesses in neighboring fishing villages and indigenous communities and what we are learning from them. The Conservancy’s on- the-ground approach to maintaining traditional land uses is encouraging local economic development, such as sustainable beekeeping, natural herbal tea production, fishing, and sustainable tree harvesting. We are providing support for the local economy through a Conservancy partnership with the World Wildlife Fund and the United Nations Development Program.
With guidance from The Nature Conservancy’s Lead Scientist M. Sanjayan, and Aspen Institute’s Executive Vice President of Policy and Public Programs Elliot Gerson, seminar leader David Monsma will facilitate a dialogue that supports three essential objectives:
<< first, to convene a diverse group of thoughtful leaders in rigorous roundtable discussions;
<< second, to explore innovative ideas across time—from ancient to present day—to gain insights for addressing fundamental issues in our society; and
<< third, to translate ideas into action suitable to the conservation challenges of our age.
from thought to action, from success to significance. PROPOSED ITINERARY SATURDAY, MARCH 1 U.S. TO SANTIAGO, CHILE Depart on your overnight flight to Santiago Chile. Overnight: Aloft
DAY 1: SUNDAY, MARCH 2 ARRIVE IN SANTIAGO Upon arrival at Santiago International Airport (SCL), you will be met by your local guide Jorge Moller from Darwin Trails, and transferred to your hotel. After settling in, we will take a brief city tour, followed by lunch.
Santiago lies in one of the most spectacular settings of any city in the world. Encircled by the snowcapped Andean peaks to the east and a smaller coastal range to the west, this metropolitan city is a mix of modern architecture, suburban parks and a charming old town district, interspersed with excellent museums and restaurants. Our tour will highlight some of the city’s more notable landmarks, such as the museum La Chascona, which Nobel Prize winning poet, diplomat and politician Pablo Neruda built as a secret hideaway for his mistress Matilde Urrutia.
We will stop for lunch at Meson Nerudiano before returning to the hotel to relax or explore on your own. This evening we will have a welcome dinner with the Conservancy’s Chile Program Staff and members of the Chile Trustee Advisory Council. Overnight: Hotel Plaza El Bosque, Ebro.
DAY 2: MONDAY, MARCH 3 SANTIAGO TO HUILO HUILO BIOLOGICAL RESERVE After breakfast and check-out, we will transfer to the airport for a short flight to Temuco. Upon arrival, we will be met by a driver and guide and driven to the Huilo Huilo Biological Reserve (2.75 hours).
Huilo-Huilo Biological Reserve (Pronounced: WHEEL-oh-WHEEL-oh) is a private, for-profit reserve and ecotourism project in southern Chile, located in the temperate rainforest. Created in 1999, the reserve includes 232 square miles of native forest and is dedicated to wildlife conservation, sustainability and tourism. It is an important partner to the Conservancy’s private lands initiative and exemplary of the way landowners in Chile are embracing the creation of private protected areas. Through partnerships, such as this one with the Conservancy, landowners are creating conditions and gaining the technical knowledge they need to support a private lands conservation movement across Chile.
We will check into the Nawelpi Lodge and explore our surroundings before cocktails and dinner. With 81 species of birds, an array of mammals, including the pudú deer, and the Monito del Monte, a relative of the Australian marsupial family, there is no shortage of wildlife at Huilo Huilo. Enjoy the beauty of the Fuy River, which flows through a volcanic canyon and ends dramatically in the Huilo Huilo Falls.
Located on the north side of the Fuy River, Nawelpi Lodge is surrounded by beautiful native forest that was designated a biosphere reserve by Unesco in 2007. The lodge has 12 completely private rooms (6 modules of 2 rooms each). Each two-room module has a private patio with a river view, a lounge with a fireplace, a Jacuzzi in the bathroom, a digital safe-deposit box, and other amenities. Overnight: Nawelpi Lodge, Huilo Huilo Reserve DAYS 3-4: TUESDAY/ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4 & 5 HUILO HUILO BIOLOGICAL RESERVE During the next two days, we will experience a mix of seminar readings and discussions and outdoor activities. More than 40 possible excursions include trekking, horseback riding, mountain biking, vehicle excursions, kayaking, sailing, mountain trips, fly fishing and bathing at the hot springs. Excursions are provided by local guides from the community and are an example of conservation-minded, responsible tourism that benefits the local economy. Overnight: Nawelpi Lodge
DAY 5: THURSDAY, MARCH 6 HUILO HUILO BIOLOGICAL RESERVE/VALDIVIA After a final morning in Huilo Huilo, we will meet for lunch and a seminar session. At the end of the session, we will check out and depart for the town of Valdivia, which is near the Valdivian Coastal Reserve.
In Valdivia, we will check into the Dreams Hotel and dine together at a nearby restaurant, known for its fresh seafood. Overnight: Dreams Hotel, Valdivia
DAY 6: FRIDAY, MARCH 7 THE CONSERVANCY’S VALDIVIAN COASTAL RESERVE The Valdivian Coastal Reserve is part of an ancient temperate rainforest rising from Chile’s southern coastline. This vast stretch of coastal forest is a remnant of thousands of years past, when it was connected to the forests of New Zealand and Australia. In fact, some species are more closely related to species from those distant lands than from the Americas. During the last Ice Age, this coastal range served as a freeze-free refuge for a multitude of species found nowhere else on Earth.
Today, the Conservancy is focused on protecting and restoring the native forests of Valdivia. In one key reforestation pilot project, the Conservancy is working to restore nearly 9,000 acres to native forest that are currently covered in eucalyptus trees, a non-native species planted by forestry companies before the reserve was established in 2005.
(CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE) DAY 6: FRIDAY, MARCH 7...CONTINUED THE CONSERVANCY’S VALDIVIAN COASTAL RESERVE Nearly half of the Valdivian across Corral harbor and overland Coast’s woody plants are found to the Reserve’s headquarters, nowhere else on Earth. And that’s where we will begin our visit. The just the plants. The region’s Reserve’s park rangers will tell riverbanks, rocky coasts and us about their work here, such as dense understory are home to supporting scientific research and many remarkable animals—puma, working alongside the community. river otters, and other rare and The rangers will also give us a unique creatures, from the 18- history of the Reserve and the inch Magellanic woodpecker, one impact it has had in the lives of of the world’s largest, to the kod- local people, including many of kod, one of the world’s smallest the Reserve staff. wild cats. We will drive to the northern edge By the 1990s, nearly half of the of the Reserve to begin our tour. Valdivian Coastal Range had been Five rivers flow completely within lost to logging and development, the borders of the Reserve, and and much of the rest was under where one of them—the Colún threat of a planned coastal River—meets the Pacific Ocean, highway. we will have a spectacular view from an observation deck of its Today, the Valdivian Coastal twin freshwater lakes. Deeper Reserve is a thriving model in the Reserve, we will visit the of private land and marine 13,000 acres of forest land that conservation. The innovative were cleared of native vegetation conservation model implemented by the timber company that by the Reserve provides previously owned the property. opportunities to the local community by hiring and training At the Sendero Alerces hiking residents to manage and staff trail, we will take a short, guided the property. The model also helps walk through groves of olivillo and them participate in government- alerce trees and see a variety of sponsored development initiatives. other plant species that grow in Our visit will showcase initiatives the temperate coastal rainforests that The Nature Conservancy has of Valdivia. developed here with partners, universities and other NGO’s, all After a short rest, we will go by working toward the common goal vehicle to the Colún River for of managing large landscapes for lunch. Hiking and horseback riding plant and animal conservation will be available for those who and for conservation-friendly would like to explore the caves development. and dense vegetation surrounding Colún beach before we head back A 20-minute drive from Valdivia is to our hotel in Valdivia for our the small seaport town of Niebla. final night. Here we will transfer by ferry Overnight: Dreams Hotel, Valdivia DAY 7, SATURDAY, MARCH 8 VALDIVIA/TEMUCO/SANTIAGO After breakfast, we will drive to Temuco for our flight to Santiago. Day rooms will be available to us near the Santiago airport before we transfer to the Santiago International Airport for our return flights home that evening.
DAY 8: SUNDAY, MARCH 9 ARRIVE IN U.S.
ESTIMATED COST $7,500 per person/double occupancy Single Supplement: $1,200
What’s Included: << Airport transfers << Accommodations << Meals (except those in transit from the U.S.) << Ground and domestic air transportation << Excursions (some excursions at Huilo Huilo may be extra)
What’s Not Included: << International Airfare << Gratuities << Items or services of a personal nature
Photo Credits: Cover: Valdivian Coastal Reserve, Chile © Nick Hall; Page 1: Valdivian Coastal Reserve, Chile © Nick Hall; Stock graphic, Creative Common License; Page 2: Stock photo, Creative Common License; Page 3: Colun Beach, Chile © Nick Hall; Page 4: Sea Lions, Chile © Nick Hall; Helecho Enano (Dwarf Fern), Chile © Erika Nortemann; Alerce Coastal National Park, Chile © Nick Hall; Chile Gunnera w/ tree frog, Chile © Mark Godfrey; Page 5: Stock graphic, Creative Common License; Page 6: Old Growth, Valdivian Coastal Reserve © Tina Buijis
EXPLORE The Valdivian Temperate RAINFOREST