From buying items made with recycled materials to donating money to help create new national parks. Find out how you can do your bit to protect Chilean Patagonia. And all online.
Chilean Patagonia hosts one of the most substantial diversity of landscapes, climates, cultures, and ecosystems in the world. You will be sure to notice this when you visit any of its attractions between the Gulf of Corcovado and Cape Horn.
For this reason, tourism in the area is characterized by exploring its different natural wonders, as well as conserving its geography, geology, ecology, and history. How? Through a series of initiatives that contribute to protecting this unique territory.
Even if you have no plans to travel to Patagonia but still want to collaborate, here are three ways you can support its conservation from the comfort of your own home. Take note!
If you like original objects or giving gifts with meaning, while providing work to people in the northernmost part of Patagonia, the company Vivo en Pass recycles waste by making products and souvenirs that range from pictures made from pallets to mandalas made with canvas remnants.
The initiative is led by Pamela Silva, a young entrepreneur with years of experience in waste management and known in the area for taking recycling to new limits, such as giving a new use and value to worn objects. Given the lack of a formal recycling market in the Los Lagos region, she decided to dedicate herself to treating plastic waste.
This project not only allows Puerto Montt’s craftspeople to make crafts but also to exhibit their creativity in shops in this city and in Puerto Varas. The products are also available online for dispatch throughout Chile, packaged in 100% recycled materials.
In its effort to keep the planet’s waterways totally clean and defend the right to a healthy environment, NGO Futaleufú Riverkeeper has been protecting the Futaleufú watershed and surrounding area for six years.
This foundation belongs to an international conservation network and is responsible for informing and mobilizing community leaders to defend their rights to clean water and protect the Futaleufú River, famous worldwide for its Class V rapids, turquoise waters, and perfect fly fishing conditions.
If you support its cause, you can like its Facebook page, which will keep you up to date on all its activities and other initiatives to protect the area’s natural and cultural heritage. If you want to do more, you can donate money to the organization through a bank transfer.
Thanks to the land donation US business tycoon Douglas Tompkins’ foundation (Tompkins Conservation) to the Chilean state, the government is set to create a total of five new national parks in Chilean Patagonia and will expand three more.
Together with Pumalín National Park, the Patagonia National Park is another emblematic nature reserve which is already open to the public with 263,000 hectares dedicated to protecting one of the wildest places left on Earth. Nonetheless, environmentalists behind this significant initiative are calling for more people to participate in what they call a unique opportunity in life.
The foundation welcomes volunteers who want to join the restoration program through internships, taking on specific project tasks, as well as followers who talk about its work and progress, donors, and those who support its public campaigns through platforms such as Facebook.
The Internet provides different ways to support a mission as noble as the conservation of Chilean Patagonia. Better still, donating money is not the only way to help; it is enough just to have a little time and a willing disposition.
And if you still haven’t been to this corner of the world, visiting is an excellent way of contributing to its conservation. So get inspired and get tips on the best way to plan a trip to Patagonia.
