Protected areas
48% of the Aysen region is protected by SNASPE (The
system of State Protected Wilderness Areas in the Aysen Region) all
of which is administrated by CONAF, The National Forestry Commission.
This includes 5 national parks, 12 nature reserves and 2 natural monuments.
Whilst the region is wealthy in protected land, the
areas themselves are incredibly under resourced with little or no infrastructure.
Consequently there are huge areas with no control over use of the park
or restrictions on entering them. It is common knowledge that many farmers
use the national park for grazing cattle and take timber out.
The Aysen Biodiversity Project has recently made some
excellent inroads into educating local people and recreational users
on the importance of the protected areas and ways of reducing our impact
upon them.
The National park most important to us and the expeditions
we run is Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael. In 1983 its boundaries were
definitively set and it now includes an area of 1,742,000 hectares making
it the largest national park in the Aysen region. Due to the importance
of its natural resources the park was declared a World Biosphere Reserve
by UNESCO.
Some of the highest southern Andean peaks make up the
park. Among these are San Valentin at 4058 metres, the Arenales mountains
at 3365metres and Hyades at 2507metres. The park also contains all of
the northern ice fields and various glaciers such as San Quintin, Exploradores,
Hualas, Leones, Soler, Steffens and San Rafael. The Park has a variety
of climatic systems and wet and dry seasons. Rainfall varies between
5 000mm annually in the higher altitudes and the ice field and 2000mm
in the river Baker area where the average annual temperature is 9ºc.
There is five times more rainfall in Laguna San Rafael than in Cochrane.
There is also 40% more rainfall above 1000 metres on the glacier San
Rafael than on the coast.
This entire area is supervised by 2 park rangers based
at the Laguna, on the West side of the park. An impossible task. Consequently
much of the “care” for the park comes from the responsible
use of its users, something that we take seriously and have been very
careful to include in the development of the Aysen Glaciar trail. |
