Coastal-Marine Protection in Chilean Patagonia: Historical Progress, Current Situation, and Challenges

Abstract

Chilean Patagonia offers a unique opportunity at both the national and international levels to establish an integrated system of coastal-marine protection of enormous value for biodiversity and society. This chapter describes the creation, current status, and principal geographic characteristics of the different forms of coastal-marine protection in the region in order to provide an overview of progress and challenges. Current coverage of marine protected areas, which have been the focus of most work to date, is limited to 6% (11,218 km 2 ) of Patagonia's coastal-marine zone. However, the interior waters within national parks and national reserves that make up the National Protected Area System cover an additional 35% of the coastal zone (63,933 km 2 ) and represent 85% of the legally protected marine area. In addition, requests by Indigenous communities to establish Indigenous People's Coastal Marine Spaces (in Spanish Espacios Costeros Marinos de Pueblos Originarios, ECMPO) now total 62.931 km 2 across 65 different areas and present an important potential complementary conservation tool. This study thus suggests the need to expand our understanding of marine biodiversity conservation in Patagonia with a recognition of all forms of marine protection as well as complementary areas such as ECMPOs. Finally, we provide recommendations for priority strategies to consolidate a large-scale integrated coastal-marine conservation system for Chilean Patagonia. These include strengthening the effective management of the marine portion of national parks and reserves, developing a protocol for the recognition of ECMPOs as marine protected areas when requested by their proponents, the creation of public and public‒private funding mechanisms, technical assistance for all forms of protection, and the importance of integrated sea-land planning and management.

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