Five Reasons We Are In It To Win It With Chile's Queremos Parque Campaign
Photo by, Matt Maynard.
The grassroots Queremos Parque (We Want a Park) campaign could soon become the greatest accomplishment in the history of Chilean conservation. We’ve been putting our resources behind it for the last two years. Here’s why.
Queremos Parque’s goal is simple:
Lobby the Chilean Government to declare the Peak-district-sized 350,000 acre Río Colorado Basin a national park. The territory is on the doorstep of the seven million-strong capital city of Santiago. The protective status would facilitate environmentally sustainable tourism, public access and protection of its precious wildlife and glacial system.
Here are our 5 reasons why we are in it to win it with the Queremos Parque campaign:
Photo by, Matt Maynard.
1. Santiago’s Need for Access to Green space.
Lying just 60km outside Santiago, the Queremos Parque land is easily accessible for all citizens, a must for the survival of the rapidly growing city. The World Health Organisation (WHO) advise that every human should be able to access 30m2 of green space per person. The rapid urbanisation of Santiago has left each citizen on average with just under 4m2 . With extensive green space still available around the city, decisive action can be taken.
The importance of greenspace has been highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic, showing everyone exactly why it is so necessary for maintaining mental health and wellbeing. As the (WHO) outline, city life often carries associations with chronic stress and insufficient physical activity. For many, the best way to maintain physical and mental wellbeing is consistent exercise and access to green space.
Photo by, Matt Maynard.
Chile has implemented firm Coronavirus restrictions including a 9pm-5am curfew across the country to quell the spread of the virus. This has severely curtailed accessibility of outside spaces. Yet, even pre-Covid, for a country that is 80% mountainous and 21% forested – access to green space has been severely limited due to socio-economic disparities that restrict people’s ability to travel for recreation.
The completion of Queremos Parque would open up 350,000 acres of public land to the seven million Chileans living just 60km away
2. Importance of Protecting the Glaciers in the Metropolitan Region:
The creation of a national park in the Rio Colorado Basin would include the protection of 44,000 acres of glacial coverage, including 300 glaciers that provide 50% of Santiago’s water supply.
Changes to Chile’s privatised water system is a major sticking point as it begins to re-write its dictatorship era Constitution. As Queremos Parque’s network of supporting NGOs and environmental organisations leverage the protection of these fresh water reserves at this crucial time, the example set by the declaration of this national park could help influence better water equity access across the nation.
Wild horses roaming the extensive Rio Colorado. Photo by, Matt Maynard.
3. Conserving the Flora and Fauna of Chile
The Queremos Parque land boasts thousands of endemic species of plant and animals. 84% of Patagonia enjoys national park status. But wildlife and ecosystems in the central regions of Chile enjoy very little protection currently. This disparity would be rectified by the creation of this high quality national park in the semi-arid Metropolitan Region.
Earth Rise founders Matt Maynard and Jimmy Hyland have had the privilege to experience Chile’s wildlife first hand on their adventures. However, for many Santiaguinos in this rampantly inequitable country, the travel required makes this just a pipe-dream. Queremos Parque would ameliorate this inequity.
Photo by, Matt Maynard.
4. The Mega Collection of NGO’s behind this grassroots initiative
The NGO’s as a group portray the well-thought-out nature of this campaign, bringing complimentary skill sets.
Fundación Plantae function largely as the biodiversity conservation specialists; they will ensure the survival of the already endangered 44,000 hectares of glacial coverage in the area. Using their expertise in water management and conservation of associated ecosystems, Fundación Plantae want to facilitate Chilean communities to be the authors of their own future socio-environmental change.
Acceso PanAm provide understanding of the adventure activities available in the Río Colorado Basin. Particularly focussing on the access and use of outdoor spaces for climbing and mountaineering, protecting mountainous regions and ecosystems. They also provide training and incentives to partake in conservation courses, while their volunteers specialise in negotiating access to remote climbing areas.
Regenera bring sustainable tourism expertise to the table: the promise that really makes the national park creation attractive to the government. Regenera recognise the damage the tourism industry can cause, ultimately aiming to regenerate existing problems caused by the tourism industry.
5. Accessibility for Everyone
On the surface it may appear that this project only aims to help those particularly focused on high mountain ascents and glacier crossing. However, the 350,000 acres of the proposed Queremos Parque land provides a wealth of opportunities for all skill levels and interests. These include rafting and canoeing in the rivers, horse riding across the plains, short hikes as little as five miles and 6,000m mountain treks.
When the proposed Queremos Parque campaign is won, the park will boast six 6000m+ peaks, and at least 28 peaks standing 5000m+ high.
Get Involved:
#QueremosParque has amassed as we write this a total of 194,032 citizen signatures. Get involved here: https://queremosparque.cl/
Read our founder Matt Maynard’s Queremos Parque feature story for the RGS Geographical magazine February edition, republished on our blog here.
About the Author
Charlie Hyland is final year Journalism with Public Relations student at the University of Salford.
Follow him @charliehyland_ on Instagram and @cph321 on Twitter.