Protecting the Rio Pascua Watershed
Rio Pascua Protected Area Project
The future Rio Pascua National Park, located in the southern Aysen Region of Chile, is a conservation project to study and protect the unique ecological processes, abundant biodiversity and cultural heritage of a remote corner of Patagonia.
Project Overview
Called "The Heart of Patagonia" by local inhabitants, the wildlands of our Rio Pascua Project are a nearly pristine wilderness in one of the most isolated areas of Patagonia. Covering the last remaining unprotected stretch of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, this large landscape hosts untrammeled habitat for biodiversity and some of the least-visited wildlands in the region.
Our primary goal for this project is to facilitate the creation of a new protected area by advocating for strict protection of federal lands within the watershed, working with locals to purchase strategic private inholdings from willing sellers to increase connectivity, and restoring degraded wildlife habitat. This future wilderness park hosts habitat for the endangered Huemul deer, permanently protects the threatened Pascua river from mega-hydroelectric projects, preserves the history of the areas first settlers, advocates against the proposed Ruta 8, and protects wildlands at a high-level of biological conservation.
The future Rio Pascua Protected Area will protect up to one million acres of wilderness and provide wildlife space for adaptations to a changing climate. Our park offers a rare opportunity to conserve large tracks of land that support healthy wildlife populations. We currently have 3,600 acres in our conservation area registry program (local, voluntary protection) and will continue to work toward expanding protections for private land within our park boundaries.
Additionally, we’ve begun work on a long-term Huemul Survey and Monitoring Program. The main objectives of this program will be to determine the abundance of the endangered Huemul deer and to identify their distribution across this landscape. Furthermore, our research will identify potential corridors essential to connecting separate populations, identify threats facing the species, work to determine how climate change may alter their behavior and work with local stakeholders to protect this species from extinction.
Preserving a Landscape Rich in History and Biodiversity
Contributing to the creation of new protected areas and saving species from extinction is an opportunity of a lifetime; your support is essential to protecting the flora, fauna, fungi and culture of those that call this wild space home.