PATAGONIA

NATIONAL PARK

CREATING THE FUTURE

conservacion patagonica

Our Mission
We are dedicated to protecting and restoring wildland ecosystems and biodiversity in Patagonia through the formation of new national parks. A Record of Success
Conservacion Patagonica, a nonprofit charity incorporated in California, was founded in 2000 by American conservationist Kristine Tompkins and a board of directors comprised of conservation and business luminaries. The former longtime CEO of the Patagonia clothing company, Kris Tompkins has lived in South America for many years, devoting her time to land and wildlife conservation projects. Under her leadership, Conservacion Patagonica has protected roughly 450,000 acres, and created one new national park in Argentina. Over the past two decades, she has worked with her husband, businessman and philanthropist Douglas Tompkins, to create new protected natural areas in Chile and Argentina totaling more than two million acres. The Conservacion Patagonica team is capable, e cient, and results-oriented, applying an entrepreneurial spirit toward land conservation. The campaign to create the future Patagonia National Park in Chiles Chacabuco Valley is Conservacion Patagonicas flagship projectan unparalleled opportunity to establish a new, world-class national park in one of the most spectacularly beautiful and wild places left on Earth.

Why Patagonia?
The Patagonia region enjoys tremendous allure but almost no protection.
The wild tip of South America offers dramatic beauty and wide-open spacestraits that belie the lands ecological fragility. More than a century of intensive grazing by domestic livestock has caused grave damage to Patagonias grassland ecosystems. Widespread deforestation, persecution of native carnivores, expanding oil and mining exploitation, and proposed mega-dams for hydroelectricity are current and future threats to the regions natural character. Less than five percent of Patagonia is permanently conserved. The agricultural ministry of Argentina estimates that desertification of the Patagonian steppe ecosystem will affect nearly eighty percent of the region if actions are not taken now to reduce pressure on this fragile landscape. The World Wildlife Fund has defined Patagonia as a global conservation priority. Now is the time to establish a system of ecological reserves in Patagonia, including national parks, that will ensure healthy wildlife populations into the future.

Of all the places Ive been in the worldand I havent missed manyPatagonia remains right at the top as one of my favorites, but we cant take this special place for granted, so the establishment of national parks is essential to the preservation of this awesome landscape. Tom Brokaw

Conservacion Patagonicas flagship project is well underway...

PATAGONIA NATIONAL PARK

A Bold Vision for the Big Wild

Simply put, this conservation project is creating the future Patagonia National Park in Chilean Patagonia. Our conservation blueprint calls for a 750,000-acre wilderness area that will be as spectacular as Chiles famed Torres del Paine National Park and nearly the size of Yosemite National Park in California. The Chacabuco Valleys extraordinary beauty, biodiversity, and wildness (all of the areas native species are still present) have made it the top conservation priority of the Chilean national park system for three decades. Now the dream of local lovers from around the globe is cion Patagonica began the park private ranch, the 174,770-acre in the Aysen Province. Since have been acquired. Conservabuy key properties from willing acreage, in combination with Reserves of 430,000 acres, will protected area will expand the Chiles emblematicand highly of thirty. The Patagonia National of CONAF, the administrative Park system and CONAMA, the conservationists and wilderness being fulfilled. In 2004 Conservacampaign by purchasing a large Estancia Valle Chacabuco, located then, an additional 22,400 acres cion Patagonica will continue to sellers as opportunities arise. This two adjacent Chilean National create the new park. The resulting habitat of the huemul deer, endangeredspecies, by a factor Park effort has the strong support agency of the Chilean National Chilean Environmental Protec-

tion Agency. For many of us, time spent hiking or camping in wilderness is a soul-enriching experience. At this point in history, opportunities to experience the majesty, beauty, and spiritual renewal that wild places offer are increasingly rare. The future Patagonia National Park is an antidote to the increasing degradation of the wild worlda place to help nature heal, that is regaining wildness, and will provide a permanent sanctuary for ecological processes and wildlife populations to flourish into the future. Please join us! Kris Tompkins President Conservacion Patagonica

Inside the Creation of a New National Park

Huemul Deer Monitoring Project

One of the primary reasons for expanding protected habitat in the Chacabuco Valley is the critically important population of huemul deer that occupies the valley and neighboring Tamango Huemul Reserve. The huemul deer is literally on the edge of extinction. The Valle Chacabuco/Tamango population is an estimated 120 individuals, ten percent of the total population left on Earth. With the species fate hanging in the balance, it is crucial to understand the deers ecology and threats. Conservacion Patagonica is funding and managing a program to track adults and fawns through radio telemetry in order to learn how they use the landscape, and can best be protected.

Puma Monitoring Project

The first effort of its kind in Chile, our team of biologists and park rangers are tracking pumas with satellite collars. The resulting data should give us a good indication of what impact, if any, predation by wild cats is having on the endangered huemul deer. Our head tracker was for many years a puma hunter, eliminating the cats as a threat to livestock. Today, Arcilio is proudly tracking pumas to ensure their protection and helping preserve the huemul population.

Volunteer and Other Programs

Established in 2006, Conservacion Patagonicas volunteer program is thriving, with more than one hundred volunteers from seven different countries participating during the 2009 season. Ranging in age from 17 to 62, volunteers commit a minimum of three weeks to the project. With over 400 miles of habitat-fragmenting fencing to tear down, invasive exotic plants to eradicate, and other restoration projects to implement, our volunteers are finding that hands-on work to build a new national park is a transformative experience; we have several who have joined us repeatedly! For more information about this program see the Volunteer section of the Conservacion Patagonica website. All willing hands are welcome.

Environmental Education and Community Participation

There can be no truly enduring land and wildlife protection unless local people support it and a national constituency for conservation is developed. Conservacion Patagonica participates actively as a member of the local community by providing environmental education programs at the park, funding university scholarships, supporting hospitals, participating in community events, and working closely with local, provincial, and national governmental agencies. We believe in being good neighbors and working toward a vibrant and healthy community, wherever we work.

Restoring Grasslands and Beech Forests

Extensive restoration projects are underway in the areas most seriously damaged by past overgrazing, fire, and logging. We are also working with leading scientists to understand how our grassland and forest restoration efforts can increase carbon sequestration and help mitigate climate change.

Eradicating Exotic Plants

Brought in by livestock over the last century, exotic plant species are a significant problem in the Chacabuco Valley. For the last four years volunteers and staff have been aggressively working to control invasive plants and give native grasses a chance to recover.

Archaeological Studies
The Chacabuco Valley was once used by Tehuelche Indians as a summer hunting ground. Preliminary observations suggest that it also might have been a travel route from the Argentine grasslands to the Chilean Andes and Pacific coastline. Archaeological findings in the valley are giving researchers new information to better understand how the Tehuelches lived hundreds of years ago.

Sharing the Planet with Other Creatures

Planetary warming is nearly universally accepted as fact. The global extinction crisisthe loss of species at a rate unprecedented in the past sixty-five million yearsis not nearly as well known outside the scientific community. We believe that humanity has an ethical responsibility to preserve enough natural habitat so that all species have room to flourish. While our fate depends on healthy ecosystems, wild places and creatures have an intrinsic right to exist, regardless of their utility to people. Working to create the future Patagonia National Park is a way of putting ethics into action, to create a landscape where wildness is the preeminent management objective, and visitor recreation is compatible with ecological integrity. In the Chacabuco Valley we already see wildlife populations beginning to rebound, giving us hope that with just a bit of relief from external threats and with a helping hand in the form of restoration projects, wildlife numbers can quickly recover.

Wildlife in Our Life

Back to the Era of the Great Parks

Good Architecture, Inspiration, and Conservation Values

For every visitor to a national park, the sensitivity and style of the public access infrastructurefrom signage to welcome center to lodgingsignals which direction their experience will turn. If complementary to the natural surroundings, park architecture elevates the visitor experience and communicates that a nation values its land and wildlife heritage. As the great early national parks in the United States were developed, architecture became a central feature of the protected area. Genius in design, deftness in construction techniques, and careful choice of materials became central to the aura of each park, stylistically designed to harmonize with the landscape. This tradition of excellence in park architecture was also exported to Argentina, the third country in the world to create a national park system. The distinctive rustic style created by Maybeck, Maier, Reamer, Colter, Underwood, and others in the United States, and Bustillo in Argentina, became integral to the national park experience. Stephen Mather, first director of the U.S. National Park Service, knew that great national pride could be

built through the parks as the image and face of the nation. He understood that the nations patrimony was based on the land, and that there was no finer expression of the greatness of a country than could be expressed through exquisite national parks. In that same spirit, Ezequiel Bustillo created the outstanding architecture that was the founding trademark and enduring symbol of the great Argentine parks system in Patagonia, which delights visitors today. Millions of young people have been drawn to the parksto experience and appreciate nature. This is the spirit that inspires us as we design and build the public access architecture for the future Patagonia National Park. No other park has been conceived and is being built today anywhere in the world which similarly harkens back to the era of the great early national parksdemonstrating in every detail a commitment to preserve beauty. Our purpose is to leave a truly lasting legacy. Creating a park of timeless beauty and ecological vitality may be more costly initially, but the lasting benefits from this investment will stand the test of time. Donors to the Patagonia National Park will be able to take pride that they helped build and give to the people of Chile a true monument of global significance.

Public Access Infrastructure

Architecture as Activism
The success of Conservacion Patagonicas campaign to create the new Patagonia National Park depends equally on raising funds for land acquisition and for creating park infrastructure. Ironically, the latter may be even more crucial. Throughout Latin America, government budgets are severely strained attempting to meet social needs such as education and health care. Although conservation is broadly supported, public funding is often scarce. By delivering a fully operational national park to the Chilean government, we soften the impact of taking on a new responsibility when agency budgets are already tight, and also help the government leadership approve this without political opposition.

On Schedule
Construction of infrastructure for the future Patagonia National Park began in February 2006; the work is now well underway and on schedule. This stage of the parks development is the most di cult, complex, and costly. The Chacabuco Valley is very remote, and building materials must be brought nearly a thousand miles from where we buy them, largely on rough roads. Skilled construction teams needed to be formed, and housing created for them, representing a significant addition to the local community with all of the practical adjustments such a change implies.

Built to Last
Using native stone for building exteriors and high quality copper for the roofs, the initial construction costs are necessarily high. These structures, however, will serve park visitors for generations. Were inspired by the venerable Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park to create buildings that are attuned to place and that will be equally elegant 150 years from the day they come into service. Besides being architecturally outstanding, the parks infrastructure is a model of energy e ciency and minimal ongoing maintenance.

We Need Your Help

Were almost at the halfway mark. We need your help to finish this new park.
Conservacion Patagonicas rapid progress to acquire land, implement restoration programs, build infrastructure, and develop public support for the future Patagonia National Park is a reflection of a great team of people and good planning and were proud of it. We are on budget and on schedule to create a grand new protected area in the Chacabuco Valley. But there is much work yet to be done. Those of you who are supporters of the project, we hope that youll stick with us and continue to support us as you have in the past. Those new to Conservacion Patagonica, we humbly ask you to become a supporter of this exciting effort. Sometimes even spectacular places require great struggle to preserve. Grand Canyon National Park took nearly forty years to be protected in its current form. Grand Teton National Park took even longer. Today we cant imagine that these places could be anything but national parks, yet they were not inevitable. It took tremendous commitment by conservationists to save them. We cant wait forty years. More importantly, the habitat and wildlife cant hold out that long. We estimate that the future Patagonia National Park, a world-class natural area in one of the wildest places left on Earth, will cost $55 million dollars. This is not a trivial sum and we know it requires a great effort, but it is achievable! Twenty million dollars have already been raised to acquire land, fund years of restoration work, wildlife programs, educational programs, and infrastructure. Our fund drive is now focused on raising the $35 million necessary to finish this park in the next eight years. Future generations will surely look back and consider it a remarkable bargain! The parks wild character will live on long after we are gone. Being part of this campaign to create a living legacy of wildness, health, and natural beauty is an extraordinary opportunity. It is a privilege to do something truly meaningful that has enduring value.

Please join us in the effort to build the Patagonia National Park.

Im part of the effort to create Patagonia National Park because it is the best example of what we can do to restore, then permanently conserve, key wildlands. To buy up failed, overgrazed ranches, remove the fences, give the land a rest and create a national park and then donate it to the people of Chile is a winning plan for both the people of Chile and the natural world. Yvon Chouinard

Board of Directors
Kristine Tompkins
Founder and president, Conservacion Patagonica. Former CEO of the Patagonia clothing company. With her husband, Douglas, and his foundation, the Conservation Land Trust, Kristine helped create the well-known Pumalin Park in southern Chile. Together they have conserved more than two million acres in Chile and Argentina.

Contact Information
We welcome your comments and questions. Please see our website or write directly to us for more information on the future Patagonia National Park project or any of our other projects and programs. Conservacion Patagonica Building 1062, Fort Cronkhite Sausalito, California 94965, USA Phone: (415) 229 9339 info@conservacionpatagonica.org www.conservacionpatagonica.org Conservacion Patagonica Estancia Valle Chacabuco Cochrane, Chile Phone: 56 65 97 08 33

Yvon and Malinda Chouinard

Owners of the Patagonia clothing company. Long-time environmental philanthropists and conservationists. Yvon is a world-class fly fisherman, surfer, and alpinist. Malinda is a California architectural and tree preservationist. They have set their companys mission to act as a model for corporate responsibility.

Peter Buckley
Environmental philanthropist. Peter is a kayaker, surfer, and conservationist. After a career as CEO of Esprit-Europe, he began building institutions for the environmental community. His projects include co-founding the Center for Ecoliteracy, the Greenwood School, as well as his current project, the David Brower Center, a facility designed to inspire and support the activist community.

Rick Ridgeway
The Patagonia clothing companys Vice President of Environmental Initiatives. Before joining Patagonia, Rick was owner/president of Adventure Photo and Film, building it into the worlds most recognized outdoor stock photo and film agency. Rick is recognized as one of the worlds foremost mountaineers and adventurers, and is known to many through his writing, photography, and Emmy award-winning filmmaking. Rick also leads the Freedom to Roam initiative in the U.S., working toward a National Wildlife Corridor System for species migration.

Debbie Ryker
Financial director for Conservacion Patagonica. Debbie has worked as finance director for all the conservation and environmental projects with the Tompkins for the past nineteen years. She was formerly the chief financial o cer at Esprit de Corp.

PATAGONIA
Keeping It Wild

conservacion patagonica
www.conservacionpatagonica.org