Keywords

1 Introduction

1.1 Context

Chilean Patagonia extends for approximately 1,600 km along the southwestern margin of South America, from the Reloncaví Sound to the Diego Ramírez Islands (41° 42'S 73° 02'W; 56° 29'S 68° 44'W), occupying a continental territory intensely fragmented by glacial activity and tectonic phenomena that occurred during the Pleistocene (the last 1.5 million years). It is the largest system of estuaries and fjords in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest extensions of land-sea area remaining wild in the world. Its total area is 452,204 km2, including the inland sea and terrestrial landscape. The coastal zone is rugged, with steep gradients between 0 and 3,000 m altitude, with the presence of a relatively shallow inland sea (between 100 and 1,000 m), separated from the Pacific Ocean by island chains [48]. It is in the protected inland sea, in the channels and fjords where extraordinary marine biodiversity is concentrated, as well as the main flow of matter and energy, and where the highest primary productivity has been recorded [19, 24].

The southern tip of South America is an area of climatic contrasts, from hyper-humid conditions on the western margin to semi-arid on the eastern margin; there is spatial contiguity between marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments in a system of gulfs, fjords, and estuaries, and the most extensive latitudinal continuity of forests and wetlands in the entire Southern Hemisphere (41°–56° S). It is undoubtedly one of the most exceptional landscapes in the world, with its unique scenic beauty [22] and diversity of ecosystems, where numerous remote enclaves that have been scarcely transformed by human activity remain [5, 31, 37, 42, 49, 50, 59].

The persistence of these remote areas is of special scientific interest because they are important reservoirs of pre-industrial ecological processes and constitute enclaves for buffering and counteracting the effects of global change on the planet [14, 33, 72, 73]. The integrity of ecosystem functions in Chilean Patagonia is strengthened by the large land area dedicated to parks and reserves, which cover 51% of the territory, equivalent to 71% of the total area protected in Chile [65]. Official public conservation of the Patagonian marine-coastal systems reaches 41%, including 11 Marine Parks and Marine Reserves, Multiple-Use Marine and Coastal Marine Protected Areas and Nature Sanctuaries, with 11,218 km2 (6% of the Patagonian marine territory), and the marine-coastal space of 7 National Parks and National Reserves of the National Protected Area System (SNASPE in Spanish), with 63,703 km2 (35% of the marine territory; [68]). Unfortunately, the recognition of the SNASPE’s coastal marine areas by public institutions and their management has been highly variable.

The lack of protection and limited knowledge of the biological and physical characteristics of Patagonian freshwater systems is notable. They are represented in southwestern Patagonia by a diversity of lake basins, among the most transparent and deepest in the world, as well as the largest and most torrential rivers in Patagonia and Chile [55]. The extensive continental ice fields (Fig. 1), the largest outside of Antarctica [56], are important regional and global water reserves, whose flows feed numerous rivers and wetlands. The extensive coastal wetlands dominated by Sphagnum moss cover deep strata of soils rich in organic carbon, of high relevance for climate regulation [35]. The region has one of the most continuous (120,000 km2) and still sparsely modified forest covers [21], which represents important carbon storage that contributes to climate change mitigation [5]. This synthesis argues that understanding and safeguarding the exceptional values of these vast southern ecosystems requires an integrated conservation vision, leading to the protection and management of the marine-terrestrial interface and the local livelihoods of the Chilean Patagonia inhabitants.

Fig. 1
A map of a study area in South America highlights Puerto Montt, and Coyhaique. It also marks various forest regions, including Valdivian, Nord Patagonian, Guaitecas cypress, cold deciduous lenga, sub Antarctic evergreen, magellanic, high andean vetetation, patagonian steppe, and ice fields.

Marine ecoregions of Chilean Patagonia according to [57] and map of terrestrial plant formations, compiled from various sources, including descriptions and maps published by [3, 34, 39, 51, 69]

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1.2 Conservation Vision in Southwestern Patagonia

The contributions in this book have developed a vision of conservation that considers the territory of Chilean Patagonia in a unified manner, covering the region under temperate to cold climatic conditions, from the Reloncaví Sound, ca. 41° S, to the Diego Ramírez Islands, ca. 56° S. Although several authors have subdivided the region on the basis of topographic and ecological differences, and history of human occupation, our integrated vision is based on current and historical processes that cut across all of Chilean Patagonia and that identify it regionally and globally. One of the physical processes that has affected the entire region over millennia is the repeated cycles of glacial advances that fragmented and modeled the territory [56], creating an extensive system of islands, archipelagos, channels, and fjords.

The process of prehistoric settlement and the establishment of diverse cultures of native peoples of navigators, hunter-gatherers, and fishers is also a common element throughout the region [6] that is very different from the advance of European colonization and Chilean settlers from southern Chile in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This colonization had devastating effects on native peoples and their cultures throughout the Patagonian territory [6]. The historical patterns of settler migration through the Patagonian region were spontaneous or state-sponsored advances, commonly originating from Chiloé, culturally and socially connecting much of Chilean Patagonia. The environmental impacts of this colonization process were often devastating for the Patagonian territory. Large, forested areas were lost by fires and by the expansion of plagues of rabbits, hares, and other exotic animals, including the widespread impact of domestic livestock and wild animals such as beavers.

There are ocean processes common to the entire region, such as the mixing of fresh and saltwater in the numerous estuaries, in addition to the contributions of meltwater from continental glacial fields, many of which are currently retreating [56]. These processes have generated unique conditions for the fauna of the Patagonian marine territory, which tolerates wide ranges of salinity and nutrients. The study area is subject to the direct influence of westerlies, originated by the atmospheric circulation that prevails in these latitudes, as well as marine currents derived from the circum-Antarctic system, which bifurcates on reaching Patagonia between ca. 41°–46° S, and gives rise to the cold Humboldt current, that flows north along the Pacific coastline, and the Cape Horn current, which flows south (for details of seasonal variations see [63]. These ocean–atmosphere interaction systems maintain the hyper-humid condition of Patagonia’s western edge, their variation on a millennial scale has influenced the characteristics of glacial and interglacial periods which affected southern South America during the Pleistocene. This climatic pattern also generated the drying of the opposite sector of the continent to the east of the Andes, which produced steppe vegetation, well represented in Argentina and in bordering sectors of Chile [54].

More than half of the region’s continental territory is currently incorporated into National Parks and National Reserves, in contrast to the situation in the central region of the country where ecosystem protection is scarce [2, 16, 52, 65]. Chilean Patagonia includes two of the largest terrestrial-marine protected areas (PAs) in the world, the Bernardo O'Higgins National Park, with an area of ca. 39,000 km2, and the Kawésqar National Park and Reserve, of ca. 52,000 km2 [65, 68]. The effective conservation of these vast Patagonian ecosystems, defined as when the conservation actions and strategies implemented contribute to improving the status of biodiversity and ecosystem services, is of global relevance because they are some of the best-preserved systems since the beginning of the industrial era. However, most of these terrestrial and marine ecosystems are now threatened by large-scale anthropogenic processes such as the southward expansion of the salmon farming industry [13], increased tourism, the construction of roads and other infrastructure, and the advance of invasive non-native species. To mitigate these trends of accelerated change [36], it is necessary to strengthen conservation governance, management, and monitoring and enforcement systems, particularly with regard to established PAs [68].

A network of interconnected and effective PAs in Chilean Patagonia would be a conservation strategy conducive to reducing biodiversity losses, increasing ecosystem resilience to industrialization processes, and mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change. Many drivers of global change originate beyond the boundaries of conservation areas. For example, anthropogenic activities on the continents have important consequences for coastal marine ecosystems [18]. Biogeochemical and ecological connections between terrestrial and marine systems support numerous trophic chains through energy and nutrient flow [1]. The effects of human intervention on the management and disproportionate extraction of resources from coastal terrestrial systems are transmitted through watersheds to the ocean, affecting marine biodiversity [62]. A limitation of the current system of PAs in Chilean Patagonia is that the extensive marine-terrestrial interface adjacent to the PAs has not been fully integrated into conservation design and management, nor has there been an internalization of the close link between terrestrial and marine ecosystems and society in the context of the current Anthropocene [17]. Because of its geographic configuration and history, conservation in Chilean Patagonia requires to incorporate the links between sea, land and society in conservation governance and planning. This is undoubtedly a great challenge that requires coordinating efforts of many actors with the environmental commitments of the region, the country, and the world.

The cross-cutting recommendations proposed at the end of this chapter are intended to implement the following vision of integrated conservation in Patagonia: strengthen the ecosystem protection system and its ecosystem services, integrating land and sea and incorporating the development expectations of local inhabitants and the rights of Indigenous peoples, based on the scientific evidence and traditional knowledge of local communities. We propose adopting an approach that explicitly considers energy flows and ecological connections between marine and terrestrial systems, to identify and analyze threats to design mitigation and adaptation actions to global change.

We recommend here that the overall conservation policy for Patagonian ecosystems be focused on human well-being and the conservation of the livelihoods of its inhabitants, consistent with the theoretical framework proposed by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services [15, 29], which highlights the interdependency between inhabitants and ecosystems, as well as the need to reconcile the influence and perceptions of diverse knowledge systems and forms of habitation on changes in the natural world. This view is shared with the socio-ecological proposal for the sustainability of the oceans in the next decade (2020–2030), which aims to develop new forms of cooperation based on a multicultural ethic [9] and the newly adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that guides international nature conservation efforts until 2030 [77]. Both visions are consistent with an inclusive approach to conservation that reinforces the link between human society and natural systems.

2 Scope and Objectives

This synthesis is based on the premise that a systematic review of published scientific, socio-ecological, and anthropological studies relevant to the integrated conservation of Chilean Patagonia can help to identify and overcome deficiencies in governance, planning, and management currently carried out by governmental, private, and civil society entities. The chapter has the following purposes: (i) to review, based on the material presented in this book and a systemic analysis of the published scientific evidence on the region [38], the state of knowledge on Chilean Patagonian ecosystems, including terrestrial, marine, freshwater, cryosphere, and sea-land interface connections; (ii) to identify scientific, socio-environmental and global change opportunities and challenges that Chilean Patagonia faces; (iii) to synthesize and highlight the major cross-cutting recommendations (theoretical and practical) that emerge from the chapters of this book and from our vision, both in terms of conservation in action and in relation to public policies.

3 Study Area: Chilean Patagonia and Its Singularities

Chilean Patagonia, with a land area of 148,000 km2, a marine territory of 183,087 km2 and 100,627 km of linear coastline and with more than 40,000 islands [27, 68], is a region with its own biophysical, political, and cultural identity, extending across a territory that has major climatic, biotic and ethnic distinctions that have been used to define a diversity of sub-regions, biomes, ecosystems and terrestrial and marine ecoregions.

For this synthesis, the Chilean Patagonian region comprises the area between Reloncaví Sound (41° 42' S, 73° 02' W) and the Diego Ramírez Islands (56° 29' S, 68° 44' W), which are located approximately 100 km southwest of Cape Horn and are the southernmost point of the South American continent. The area includes archipelagos covered by temperate and Subantarctic forests [4, 58], dry steppes in the eastern zone with rain shadow [54], peatlands and other wetlands [35] located mainly in western Patagonia, as well as high Andean vegetation above the tree line (Fig. 1). Large ice fields [56] are also found in the continental area and in Tierra del Fuego, extending to the coast.

3.1 Description

Due to its complex geography and topography, Chilean Patagonia is home to different terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecosystems and ecoregions, which are very significant areas because they are feeding, reproductive, life cycle development, and migratory routes for a great diversity of organisms [24, 27, 55]. The south-central zone of Chilean Patagonia (47°–55° S) is a refuge for numerous animal and plant species with an endemic gene pool, a large global freshwater reserve [55], and an area that contributes to mitigating global climate change.

Patagonia is bounded tectonically by three oceanic plates (Nazca, South American, and Antarctic) that meet at the so-called Linquiñe-Ofqui fault in front of the Taitao Peninsula (47° S). This fault extends for more than 1000 km along the Andes, generating numerous volcanoes. At the southern end of America, the movement of the Antarctic plate has given the Darwin Cordillera an E-W orientation (Beagle Channel); the western half (higher altitude) has large glacier systems [56] and the eastern half (lower altitude) has forest systems, scrublands, steppes, and peatlands [35, 54]. This heterogeneity of environments harbors a remarkable biodiversity of terrestrial and aquatic organisms, as documented in the chapters of this book [4, 24, 27, 55, 58].

The southern tip of South America, where the continent narrows with latitude, is the most ice-free land mass in the Southern Ocean, extending 22° farther south than the southern tip of Africa, 14° farther south than Tasmania, and 9–10° farther south than the southern tip of New Zealand. It is a unique and formidable natural obstacle to westerly drifting wind systems and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which move from west to east, affecting oceanographic systems, wind circulation, and climate. It extends South American terrestrial ecosystems to latitudes with no equivalent in other continents of the Southern Hemisphere [59].

The continental coastline of Chilean Patagonia has been fragmented and modeled for millennia by glacial advances and retreats [56]. The terrestrial and marine landscapes are the product, on one hand of the subsidence of the Central Valley of Chile at Reloncaví Sound (Puerto Montt) and, on the other, of the powerful erosive forces of the glaciers, which covered the area during the entire Pleistocene, until ca. 15,000 years ago [70]. These effects have produced an irregular and fissured coastline with numerous channels, straits, fjords, sounds, estuaries, and islands extending between 41° and 56° S.

The Andes divides Patagonia between the eastern slope, with extensive, relatively dry plains, and the much narrower western slope, with steep slopes, estuaries, and coastal wetlands. The slopes rise up to 4000 m in altitude on Mount San Valentín, to 3600 m on Mount Murallón, and 3400 m on Mount Fitz Roy, where there are large permanent ice fields between Aysén and Puerto Natales and in the Darwin Range, with projections that flow into lakes or directly into Patagonian fjords. The main rivers have a torrential snow-pluvial regime and short hydrographic basins with high flow [55, 74]. Due to the barrier effect of the Andes and the elevation of the Patagonian mountain ranges, on its western slope Chilean Patagonia has rainfall that can reach over  >6000 mm per year [35, 36]. The circulation dynamics of the fjords are influenced by rivers and freshwater runoff. Horizontal circulation of surface water (<30 m, with low salinity) occurs from the interior of the fjords towards the mouth of the gulfs and the ocean, while salty sub-surface water masses enter through the mouths of the gulfs, due to strong westerly winds and large tides, producing mixing processes (Sobarzo, 2009) [49, 50]. However, knowledge of oceanographic processes in Chilean Patagonia is still incipient [20, 31]. Pickard and Stanton [50] described the existence of three zones in the Chilean Patagonian maritime territory (approximate latitudes): (i) northern Patagonia, 41°–47° S, (ii) central Patagonia, 47°–53° 30' S; (iii) southern Patagonia, 53° 30'–56° S. [57], based on a comprehensive literature review, propose to distinguish three ecoregions in Chilean Patagonia: (i) Chiloé-Taitao, 42°–47° S, (ii) Kawésqar, 47°–54° S; and (iii) Magallanes, 54°–56° S (Fig. 1). This classification of three Patagonian marine ecoregions is used by different authors (including some in this book) as equivalent to Patagonian marine biophysical macrozones or macro-sectors, calling them northern, central, and southern Patagonia; with boundaries similar to those used by [57] for ecoregions (see [24, 27, 43, 68]. Previously, [61, 64] had proposed the recognition of only two major marine ecoregions for Chilean Patagonia: (i) Chiloense, 41°–47° S, and (ii) Channels and Fjords of Southern Chile, 47°–56° S. In this book different authors use these terminologies to distinguish ecoregions and/or macro-geographic zones, in each case providing new biological/ecological background.

4 Conservation Based on Scientific Evidence in Chilean Patagonia

For informed conservation decision-making in Chilean Patagonia, it is essential to compile and synthesize evidence on biodiversity distribution, ecological processes, and knowledge of the human dimensions of the most pressing environmental problems [59]. This is because the main causes of ecosystem degradation, from climate change, invasive species, habitat loss, overfishing, and salmon farming [4, 13, 36, 43, 55, 58], are most evident at the interface between coastal fjord, channel, and inland sea ecosystems and human communities. Addressing these problems requires an interdisciplinary framework supported by different sources of information. Of particular importance are disciplines such as ecology, conservation, fisheries, economics, political science, environmental law, geography, anthropology, and psychology to understand fully the diversity of people's relationships with nature, especially those based on traditional and local knowledge [11, 59, 66].

A panoramic view of three different islands at a distance.

Panoramic view over Puerto Aguirre and Huichas Islands, Aysén Region. Photograph by Javier Godoy

To contribute to integrated conservation in Chilean Patagonia, we analyzed and synthesized the evidence available in the literature on the region. To do so, we compiled and analyzed published studies applying a systematic mapping approach [32], which is defined as a reliable synthesis of the quantity and quality of evidence in relation to a research question of broad relevance [23]. We investigated the state of knowledge on conservation and management of Chilean Patagonian ecosystems. This process facilitated describing and cataloging the evidence available in published regional conservation studies, covering the breadth of science needed to address questions that impact public policy. The team for this study was led by two senior experts, who were supported by a technical secretariat, who had the role of systematically collecting, compiling, and cataloguing the evidence, using the systematic mapping method [38]. A national scientific panel made up of an interdisciplinary group of 8 experts supervised the thematic and geographic review of the region.

The 17 other chapters of this book analyze the marine, terrestrial, and freshwater biodiversity of Chilean Patagonia, the accelerating pressures of global and local changes on ecosystems, the impacts of aquaculture and fisheries, the interrelationship of the land-sea interface, the conservation of glaciers, peatlands, steppes, and primary forests, Indigenous-led conservation, evidence-based conservation, as well as the management of protected areas and socioeconomic trends in the region. The chapters compile available information from the literature, critically review key conservation issues, and formulate specific recommendations for integrated management of Patagonian conservation. Evidence was coded with semantic analysis using R Bibliometrix software and each publication was classified into each of the five study systems: (i) terrestrial; (ii) marine; (iii) freshwater; (iv) social; (v) other [40]. We considered the five direct drivers of change in biodiversity and ecosystem services identified by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment [29, 41]: i climate change, ii habitat change; iii invasive species; iv overexploitation; v pollution [40].

The publications were grouped into one or several drivers; to validate their classification, we manually inspected the classification of the articles (n = 986) for each ecological system. One hundred percent of them were classified in one of the five study systems and 56% of the articles were classified by their focus on one or more of the drivers of change.

4.1 Time Trend

We compiled a database on Chilean Patagonia that clearly documents an increase in the number of publications over the last decade [38]. Most of the compiled publications refer to the Terrestrial and marine ecological systems (Fig. 2). The systematic map showed an exponential increase in evidence during the last 10 years, distributed in marine systems (325 articles; 33%), terrestrial systems (282; 29%), social systems (205; 21%), freshwater (148; 15%), and others (26; 3%). A growing number of recent publications include social variables and human dimensions of conservation (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2
A stacked bar graph plots the number of studies versus year. Freshwater, (1990, 15), (2000, 14), (2010, 50). Marine, (1990, 14), (2000, 16), (2010, 48). Social, (1991, 10), (2002, 15), (2010, 20). Terrestrial, (1990, 5), (2000, 13), (2010, 20). Values are estimated.

Cumulative number of studies on the Chilean Patagonia region (published between 1980–2017) classified by study system. The X axis represents the years, and the Y axis represents the number of publications per year. The relatively low number of papers on freshwater systems during the period stands out, in addition to the growth in recent decades in the number of papers that include social variables

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4.2 Distribution of Evidence by Drivers of Change

The classification by global change drivers (Fig. 3) showed that more studies have focused on climate change (191 studies; 19%), followed by studies of invasive species (131; 13%), especially addressing the impacts of salmon farming and beavers; followed by studies of pollution (102; 10%), habitat changes (79; 8%) and overexploitation of marine and terrestrial resources (53; 5%). The publications on terrestrial systems are mainly concerned with climate change (56; 6%), invasive species (49; 5%) and habitat changes (34; 3.4%).

Fig. 3
A grouped bar chart plots the number of studies versus the driver. Freshwater, (climate change, 80), (pollution, 20), (habitat change, 5). Marine, (climate change, 30), (pollution, 73), (overexploitation, 27). Terrestrial, (climate change, 60), (overexploitation, 10). Values are estimated.

Distribution of the number of publications by direct drivers of change in the different ecosystems (X-axis) and by ecosystem of interest (bar colors). The Y-axis represents the numbers of publications accumulated over the period 1980–2017

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4.3 Spatial Distribution

Georeferencing the studies in the database publications (2,059 sampling sites for 986 records) found that 72% of the sites analyzed are in the terrestrial system and only 28% in the marine system (Fig. 2). Coding the compiled evidence by drivers of change (Fig. 3) by their spatial distribution in Chilean Patagonia in the 11 current administrative provinces and the three marine ecoregions [57], we obtained the results described below (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4
2 maps of Chilean Patagonia with bar diagrams on certain regions. a, bars for fresh water, marine, social, and terrestrial, with highest for marine in Chiloe Taitao. b, climate change, over exploitation, invasive species, pollution, and habitat change, with highest for invasive species in Coyhaique.

Spatial distribution of the number of publications by administrative province and by marine ecoregion [57] of Chilean Patagonia for evidence coded by study system (a) and by direct change forcing (b)

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Climate change has been the most studied topic in the provinces of Última Esperanza (108 sites; 5%) and Capitán Prat (101 sites; 5%) where the ice fields are located, with studies documenting glacial retreat. The largest number of publications on invasive species is concentrated in Coyhaique (115 sites; 6%), Palena (60 sites; 3%), and Aysén (53 sites; 3%). The effects of pollution have been little studied in the terrestrial provinces due to their relatively low impact in the region; however, the largest number of studies is concentrated in Llanquihue, with 33 sites. Habitat change and overexploitation of natural resources have also been little studied in the literature referring to terrestrial systems (Fig. 4).

Climate change has been addressed most frequently in Patagonian marine ecoregions [57] in the Chiloé-Taitao ecoregion (42 sites), followed by the Kawésqar ecoregion (37 sites), and Magallanes (24 sites). Invasive species studies are equally concentrated in Chiloé-Taitao (30 sites) and Magallanes (30 sites), with a smaller number in the Kawésqar ecoregion (10 sites). Industrial pollution has been addressed almost entirely in the Chiloé-Taitao ecoregion (60 sites), with very few studies in the Kawésqar and Magallanes ecoregions. Habitat change has been scarcely addressed in the different marine ecoregions, while studies of resource overexploitation have been concentrated mainly in the Chiloé-Taitao ecoregion (41 sites), with few studies in Kawésqar and Magallanes. After spatializing the study sites from the database records (2,059 sampling sites for 986 records), we overlaid the map of terrestrial (Tacon et al., 2023) and marine [68] protected areas with the evidence map for the Chilean Patagonia region. We found that less than 27% of the evidence is based on information collected within protected areas. Most studies concentrated only on the three largest national parks: Bernardo O'Higgins, Laguna San Rafael, and Torres del Paine, revealing that a substantial fraction of this region remains poorly explored.

5 Opportunities and Recommendations for the Conservation of Chilean Patagonia

The holistic and inclusive approach to managing terrestrial, marine, freshwater, and sea-land interface environments represents a unique opportunity to promote a distinctive process of land use in Chilean Patagonia, setting it apart from the rest of Chile. The environmental liabilities left by the extractive development model in other regions of Chile could be avoided in Chilean Patagonia with the promotion of a new proposal for integrated conservation of the sea, land, and society [18, 44].

5.1 Bases for an Integrated System of Protected Areas in Chilean Patagonia

Chilean Patagonia has National Parks, National Reserves, and Natural Monuments (SNASPE), many of which are adjacent to coastal systems, and which cover approximately half of the land area [53, 65, 68]. This conservation platform represents a unique opportunity for Chile, and unusual worldwide, to integrate the conservation of large terrestrial and marine ecosystems. The numerous terrestrial and marine protected areas [53, 65, 68] have low levels of implementation, particularly the marine ones, and a total absence in freshwater systems, such deficits generally include the absence of well-developed management plans, insufficient monitoring, and limited financial and human resources to achieve real protection. To advance and overcome the current conservation situation in Chilean Patagonia, in the face of fragmented and competitive research and conservation schemes, in this chapter (see below we consider of high relevance the creation of an Interdisciplinary Center for Conservation in Chilean Patagonia, with a public–private orientation, and including the development of incentives for binational Chile-Argentina collaboration.

The development of mechanisms to achieve an adequate balance between the protection of marine and terrestrial systems in Chilean Patagonia is both an opportunity and an important challenge that can also contribute to the global conservation proposal for the future of the oceans [33]. An integrated and inclusive sea-land-society conservation vision will allow anticipating new and growing challenges, such as the expansion of aquaculture, new mining interest in the ocean floor, the development of coastal renewable energy projects, the regional expansion of tourism, and the expansion of use rights and productive activities in coastal marine territories. These challenges are present today in Chilean Patagonia and call for strengthening an integrated regional conservation system that goes beyond the current situation of parks and reserves, mostly on paper without real support [68].

Tacon [65] note that the SNASPE of the Chilean Patagonian region establish legal protection for ca. 83% of the surface area of snow and glaciers (29,784 km2), 40% of the surface area of native forests (36,168 km2) and scrublands, and 68% of the surface area of peatlands (22,042 km2). These proportions of the different environments suggest that there are still relevant conservation challenges, especially in less intervened areas, which have been identified both inside and outside PAs [4, 53, 55]. An important omission from public conservation is the vast areas of wetlands and peatlands, which are particularly fragile to the impacts of climate change and human intervention [35].

Most of the studies of ecosystem services or benefits to society conducted in Chile focus on inland waters, but there is little information on the value of freshwater ecosystems in the Patagonian region [55]. The few studies on the subject in Southwest Patagonia come from the Aysén basin and Isla Navarino/Tierra del Fuego [76]. To understand the relationship between water provision for humans and well-preserved forests better, a network of weather stations in headwater streams (which also provide drinking water to many rural communities) needs to be supplemented, distributed along the bioclimatic gradient of western Patagonia. Along with flow monitoring, it is important to protect these headwater streams with some legal designation that avoids their mismanagement and degradation [4].

Various private conservation initiatives (PCIs) have contributed to improving the representation, coverage, and connectivity between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in Chilean Patagonia. As of 2014, 47 PCIs were identified between the regions of Los Lagos and Magallanes, covering an approximate area of 9,640 km2, equivalent to ca. 57% of the total nationally [47]. Some of the largest PCIs in the country have been established in western Patagonia, Tantauco Park in insular Chiloé in 2003, with 1,180 km2 and the Karukinka Nature Reserve in Tierra del Fuego in 2004, with 2,700 km2. Even though the PCIs have been de facto consolidating as a complementary category of national conservation, these territories still remain in an uncertain official position [67], as progress in the matter has been slow. Only in 2020 was there a formal proposal for standards for private conservation in Chile [75].

Another type of Patagonian conservation area that has attempted to integrate research, education, and social participation in management is the Biosphere Reserves (BR). The first two BRs in Chilean Patagonia were declared in 1978: Torres del Paine and Laguna San Rafael. The BRs declared after 2000 were expanded to follow the logic proposed by UNESCO to constitute conservation landscapes, including core areas, buffer zones, biological corridors, and natural resource management areas, with scientific support in decision making, and citizen participation in management. However, in most of Chile’s BRs these proposals have not materialized and their real insertion in the national system of protected areas is not clear.

In our opinion, BRs could become management models for the entire Patagonian region under the sea-land-society integrated conservation paradigm if their theoretical objectives are fulfilled, because they focus on landscapes with highly complex environments and uses and because their inhabitants play a central role. The adoption of this BR model to connect the northern and southern ends of the Chilean Patagonian region has been considered [59], where the area currently dedicated to public and private conservation reaches the highest relative proportion in the country and where it is a priority to extend conservation from the coastal edge towards the oceans that make up the archipelagos and channels environment. This scheme should consider that all PAs in Chilean Patagonia are home to tourism activities and enterprises that promote the development of neighboring towns and communities [22, 44].

5.2 Summary of the Main Cross-Cutting Recommendations for the Conservation of Chilean Patagonia

The following is a synthesis of the main regional cross-cutting recommendations for Chilean Patagonia at different levels of analysis, from the most urgent and general to those that are more specific or require more gradual implementation. The specific recommendations by Patagonian ecosystems are detailed in each of the 17 chapters of the book:

  • Recommendations to prevent losses of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It is urgent to complete the assessment of the state of conservation in Chilean Patagonia and to clearly specify the baselines with respect to threats, opportunities, challenges, and connectivity priorities of the different Patagonian ecosystems. The most urgent actions are: (i) protection of threatened biodiversity in freshwater systems; (ii) concrete measures to prevent the impact of massive salmon farming in the region, especially in Magallanes; (iii) limiting and regulating the impact of intensive tourism in remote areas; (iv) reducing the risk from wildfires. We propose an integrative analysis of the structures and dynamics of all Patagonian socio-ecosystems in order to connect land-sea-society interactions better with the protection of ecosystem services. Such an assessment has not been used for the design and selection of PAs in Chile. Its implementation is an urgent need In Chilean Patagonia, due to its intricate geography, singularities, and multiple productive activities [44].

    A latent threat to the coastal zone of Chilean Patagonia is the rapid advance of the salmon farming industry south of the Chiloé-Taitao ecoregion, with a growing number of concessions in channel zones, archipelagos, and fjords. It is urgent to legislate and implement a system of environmental liability that regulates and penalizes environmental damage caused by massive salmon escapes from net pens, applying preventive measures and technologies [13]. This model will need to internalize the environmental costs of nutrient discharges and implement mitigation measures, such as integrated farming with algae and/or filter feeders. Under a precautionary approach, it would be reasonable to freeze the advance of salmon farming in Magallanes until mitigation measures and a regulatory system are in place to prevent the impacts of growth in biomass and nutrient discharges.

  • Recommendations for sea-land-society conservation planning. It is urgent to promote integrated planning and management of marine-terrestrial-freshwater ecosystems, to optimize conservation efforts and transfer the capacities already installed in Chilean Patagonia. One of the problems of the current PA system is that the analysis of costs and conservation actions related to sea-land interfaces have not been integrated into management or conservation priorities [8]. The current model of marine and terrestrial reserves usually assumes that each site is an independent ecological system. Human intervention in the management and extraction of resources from coastal terrestrial systems (forests and wetlands) can severely alter watersheds connected to the ocean, affecting marine biodiversity [1, 58]. It is important that the recognition of connectivity between water, forests, and soils be integrated into the watershed concept, as an instrument for public policies and/or conservation planning and regional land use changes. It is recommended that a system of incentives be designed for landowners to conserve the most pristine or valuable areas, along with improved management. The old-growth forests of Chilean Patagonia occupy important watersheds. Consideration of the interactions (water, matter, and energy flows) between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems and their focus on conservation plans could make a difference with the rest of Chile. We propose to bring to the forefront the need for monitoring and recognition of the heritage value of the fraction of intact forests that protect the headwaters of the region's watersheds [4, 55].

    Given the speed of tourism growth, there is an urgent need to link the management of PAs with regional development planning [22, 44]. This can occur in the processes of generating the Regional Land Use Plans and the Coastline Uses Zoning among other instruments. The growth of the tourism sector could generate adverse effects on the environment and some forms of biodiversity, by increasing the consumption of resources, production of waste, construction of roads that accelerate the introduction and propagation of species, and the introduction of new exotic species and increased probability of forest fires in remote areas [10]. It is therefore important to advance in planning the management of human activities in and around PAs, identifying areas with diverse opportunities to promote human development through the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services [28]. The National Forestry Corporation (administrator of the SNASPE until today) and agencies that in the future will safeguard Chile's environmental heritage, such as the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service, must be invited to participate in the entities that regulate the use of coastal zones, including the Regional Coastal Uses Commissions.

  • Financial consolidation of the protected areas system. Considering that terrestrial, marine-terrestrial, and marine PAs are one of the fundamental instruments for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and that Chilean Patagonia has a high coverage of PAs with low levels of management and public investment, a public and private investment plan is recommended to establish the foundations for coordinated management among all Patagonian conservation units. It is a priority to move towards stable, long-term financing of the PA system in Chilean Patagonia that creates incentives for its evaluation and continuous improvement [65, 68]. Annual budgets should ensure a minimum floor for the protection of all areas, thus reducing pressure for local tourism revenues channeled to conservation. Funding mechanisms for Patagonian conservation should consider the large gap that exists between the extensive protected area and the magnitude of the investment made by the country, and the corresponding payment for the services that protected nature provides to the inhabitants and to global sustainability. The explicit incorporation of regional academic centers, Indigenous communities, and citizen science groups in management and conservation tasks is essential. It is also necessary to design public and public–private financing and technical support mechanisms for all marine protection categories, including conventional marine protected areas those within the SNASPE, the Indigenous Peoples’ Coastal Marine Spaces, and the Benthic Resource Management and Exploitation Areas (ECMPO and AMERB respectively in Spanish).

  • Consolidation of an integrated network of effectively protected marine conservation areas in Chilean Patagonia. The unique archipelagic character of Chilean Patagonia represents a challenge for the protection and conservation of marine territory and land-marine-freshwater interfaces, which differs from the management formulas in most of Chile's PAs. Marine conservation still has serious deficits in Chilean Patagonia in terms of management plans, monitoring, follow-up, oversight, financing, and communication with the public. Currently, the vast majority of these marine areas are only on paper and some of them still coexist with aquaculture activities in their interior or are open to artisanal and medium-scale fisheries. There is an urgent need to move to proactive conservation action, considering the global environmental changes facing Chilean Patagonia [36]. New methodological approaches are also required, such as the development of high-resolution maps (marine and terrestrial) of carbon storage, together with maps of biodiversity and ecosystem services to identify and protect areas with the greatest co-benefits [60]. It is urgent to study and propose a network of marine conservation areas that is more comprehensive and representative than the current one, which on one hand differentiates and on the other unites northern, central, and southern Patagonia. The future network of Patagonian marine conservation areas should cover and adequately represent the different ecosystems, and also be compatible with current and future productive activities, considering the aspirations and rights of Indigenous peoples.

    It is a priority to incorporate into management plans the coastal-marine portion of each of the units of the SNASPE that contain legally recognized areas within their perimeters [68]. In addition, it is proposed to develop a protocol and legal procedures to recognize the ECMPOs s and AMERBS as marine protected areas when their owners so request, as well as to generate a system of state support for such management, including the preparation and implementation of management and administration plans.

  • Design and implementation of standardized systems for monitoring biodiversity and the conservation status of ecosystems and their ecosystem services. In conjunction with PA managers, we propose to design and implement a long-term, low-cost, monitoring system, with a minimum network of 40 monitoring sites distributed throughout the different terrestrial ecosystems, freshwater environments, the marine environment, and the cryosphere. The diverse users of biodiversity and ecosystems should be incorporated into these environmental monitoring activities, especially those related to aquaculture, fishing, tourism, transportation, resource extraction, and mining [44]. Long-term monitoring systems for the state of the most fragile or valuable ecosystems (e.g. peatlands, intact forests) are essential because projects such as the construction of the Chacao Bridge, the paving of the Austral Highway, the road that will connect the mainland with Yendegaia Bay, as well as mining exploration and exploitation permits, entail serious uncertainties for the future conservation of these ecosystems.

  • Conservation policies inspired by capacity building. It is essential to generate policies and mechanisms for integrating local communities and visitors in Chilean Patagonia through a program of information, training, integration, and co-responsibility for effective and sustained conservation [38, 45]. There is an urgent need to increase the incorporation of local communities in the planning, management, implementation, and care of the PAs. Due to the scarcity of resources and the training needs, safeguarding natural heritage with personnel from parks and other PAs alone is unlikely in the short- and medium-term. Management must be reformulated, with training programs, and with funding for a horizon of a decade, encouraging coordinated citizen participation (citizen science, see [25]. Capacity-building should be based in particular on a deep knowledge of the value of the territory, natural and cultural heritages, and how these contribute to the sustainable growth of local economies, human wellbeing and the sustainability of the biosphere. These policies should enhance knowledge by integrating citizens from all backgrounds and promote the unification of values and behavior, under an ethic of collective and responsible socio-environmental stewardship of ecosystems and their resources [12, 45, 46].

  • Incentives for Chile-Argentina binational collaboration in the conservation of Patagonia. Patagonia as a whole, with its eastern and western slopes, stands out globally for its numerous remote environments subject to reduced anthropogenic impacts [33]. This land and marine territory is currently exposed to different forces of accelerated global change (climate, oceanographic, fisheries, aquaculture, invasions of exotic species, tourism, overfishing), which may affect its eastern and western sides differently. Collaboration between Chilean and Argentine academic and governmental entities, Indigenous peoples and NGOs in Patagonia is key to generate and disseminate new knowledge, promote ecosystem monitoring, and motivate joint conservation actions. As an example, in 2018 the establishment of one of the largest oceanic conservation areas was decreed in the extreme south of Chile: the Islas Diego Ramirez-Paso Drake Marine Park, with 140,200 km2, which is complemented by the Cabo de Hornos Biosphere Reserve (48,000 km2). Both areas are adjacent to the Yaganes Marine Park in Argentina, with 68,843 km2. In this particular case, coordinated Chile-Argentina conservation management is indispensable.

  • Creation and funding of an Interdisciplinary Center for Conservation in Chilean Patagonia. One of the most important needs in Patagonian conservation research and planning is to increase interdisciplinary knowledge about the main ecosystems, their conservation needs, and their relationships with human well-being. To break with fragmented and competitive research and conservation schemes, we propose to support interdisciplinary research that integrates science, society, and traditional ancestral knowledge, thus establishing a bridge between state actors, regional academic centers, native peoples, private entities, and NGOs. We recommend the creation of an “Interdisciplinary Center for the Conservation of Chilean Patagonia” with its own staff and infrastructure, complemented by the collaboration of institutions and other regional research centers in the natural, social, and humanistic sciences. This center should generate its own lines of research and strengthen the links between the sciences developed by different entities located in Chilean Patagonia. One of its important lines of action would be to implement the vision of Patagonian sea-land-society conservation developed in this chapter. The objectives of the center should be oriented to basic and applied research with high standards, publications in national and international journals, review of management plans, systematic monitoring in and outside PAs, professional training of park rangers, the educational system, and the implementation of citizen science programs [25].

  • Support Indigenous leadership in the conservation of Chilean Patagonia and encourage intercultural dialogue. The conservation of Chilean Patagonia requires more inclusive and participatory forms of governance in PAs, as well as mechanisms for the recognition of the collective rights of Indigenous people over ancestral territories and territories. It is recommended that new policies and management capacities be developed in public services to facilitate these ends. These should include the establishment of modalities for the use and governance of PAs to support the survival of Indigenous peoples’ ways of life and cultures, including mechanisms for sharing the benefits of economic activities in PAs. Indigenous conservation territories and areas conserved by local communities under the governance of Indigenous peoples should also be identified and recognized [6]. Dialogue should be promoted in each PA, bearing in mind the IUCN guidelines and recommendations regarding types of governance and the rights of Indigenous peoples over their lands and territories. We recommend the creation of an official mechanism to provide public follow-up and decisive support to these processes, when appropriate, and to propose specific forms of restitution of rights and new forms of shared management for conservation. We also recommend that the processes of creating new PAs include a review of their possible overlap with Indigenous territories and rights, thus avoiding the violation of ancestral rights.

    It is important that the competent public bodies and private entities that manage protected areas in Chilean Patagonia consider the potential of ECMPO as conservation initiatives for Indigenous peoples in their marine coastal spaces, often adjacent to public PAs. ECMPOs assign access and management rights over marine areas to Indigenous communities in order to maintain the traditions and use of natural resources by communities linked to the coast (Tecklin et al., 2020) [26]. Although they are not currently recognized asmarine protected areas, the law establishes that ECMPOs must ensure the conservation of the natural resources within them. Therefore, it is recommended to: (i) advance in the study of the potential role of ECMPOs in biocultural conservation, including the analysis of political and legal obstacles [26] to accelerate the processes of processing ECMPO request within the stipulations of the law, (ii) provide support from CONADI and the Undersecretariat of Fisheries and Aquaculture to the communities and the ECMPO application processes for purposes compatible with conservation; (iii) provide support and strengthen the capacities of the communities for the collective governance of ECMPOs and the conservation and sustainable use of their resources.

  • Strengthening public policies and governance of the system of protected areas. Effective and long-lasting conservation in Chilean Patagonia will only be possible under a governance system that ensures a continuous link between decision-makers, local communities, and scientific entities, both for resolutions based on scientific evidence and to promote capacity building. This process must ensure efficient participatory processes, based on principles of justice and equity [38] in which citizens can demand accountability.

The cross-cutting recommendation for conservation in Chilean Patagonia is that the current governance system be modified to produce adaptive and flexible processes in the face of new legislation. The Law on Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service represents a major opportunity for biodiversity management to include lessons learned and incorporate local knowledge and that of ancestral communities and their descendants [6, 68]. At present, the SNASPE operates under a dispersed, disjointed, and incomplete institutional framework, where the protection of terrestrial and marine ecosystems is weakly integrated and that of freshwater systems does not exist. Meanwhile, the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service Law has been under legislative debate for more than a decade. It is urgent that this bill be approved in order to strengthen large-scale conservation in regions with such extensive PAs as those of Patagonia.

6 Conclusions

This chapter presents the results of a systematic review of the state of knowledge of conservation in Chilean Patagonia [38], and identifies knowledge gaps and areas where policy needs to be strengthened to safeguard Chilean Patagonian biodiversity, as well as identifying opportunities, challenges, and needs for action for effective land-sea conservation and its effects on human well-being.

The systematic mapping approach identified the main calls to action. For example, greater emphasis is needed on the study of freshwater systems and social systems in Chilean Patagonia, greater effort in the knowledge about management, and control of established PAs, to make a quantum leap from conservation on paper to integrated action. A positive aspect is the temporal trend evidencing an increase of studies that connect social and ecological aspects. The synthesis of research in Chilean Patagonia shows that the direct drivers of change, on which the evidence is concentrated, document greater concern for climate change and invasive species, including aquaculture of non-native species such as salmonids. Research lines such as the effects of pollution and species habitat loss are underrepresented in Patagonian studies. Research priorities on direct drivers of change differ among ecosystems. For example, for invasive non-native species, there is a similar number of studies in terrestrial and marine systems; however, research on the impacts of overexploitation of natural resources is concentrated mainly in marine systems, to the detriment of the terrestrial environment.

The issue that has generated the most recent concern in Chilean Patagonia is the expansion of industrial aquaculture activities, particularly salmonids, whose impact has been increasing, especially in the fjord and channel systems, many of which are relatively intact and little known. Another current issue is the recurrence of harmful algal bloom events. Although studies of terrestrial ecosystems and PAs predominate in number, those related to the state of conservation of marine systems have increased, especially along the coast and at the sea-land interface. Among the recommendations necessary for Chilean Patagonian ecosystems are the need for a more in-depth evaluation of the knowledge of some groups of organisms (particularly freshwater organisms) and to evaluate the impacts of recent anthropogenic alterations.

The region presents a globally unique opportunity for integrated land-sea-society conservation at a scale consistent with the most ambitious goals being discussed in the newly adopted international biodiversity conservation agreements that would help mitigate the effects of global warming and other global changes. The conservation platform provided by the regional SNASPE, which covers a large terrestrial and marine area, represents a unique opportunity in Chile, and unusual worldwide, to integrate the conservation of large areas covering important marine, terrestrial, and freshwater ecosystems.

An innovative and proactive recommendation for the Patagonian region's marine territory is to allocate permanent financial resources (public and private) to manage and conserve the existing and future system of public PAs and its complementation with auxiliary management-conservation areas managed by local communities, such as ECMPOs and AMERBs. The public system of Patagonian marine-terrestrial conservation should also be increased and integrated with private conservation initiatives.