Protected Areas in Chilean Patagonia

WESTERN PATAGONIA IS A LAND of deep contrasts and impressive landscapes, extending 15 degrees of latitude, or roughly 1,000 miles, along the Pacific side of southernmost South America. The Antarctic continent is only 800 miles away from Cape Horn—Chilean Patagonia’s southern tip. Covering 250,000 square kilometers, roughly one United Kingdom or three times the size of Austria, western Patagonia is home to less than 2 percent of Chile’s current population. (In this essay the term “western Patagonia” refers to the present-day Chilean province of Palena and regions of Aysen and Magallanes.)