Patagonia

Additional Pendants Originating from this Region

The word “Patagonia” refers to the southern region of South America located in modern Argentina and Chile. While much of its area is dry grass rangelands, Patagonia also contains extensive mountainous terrain in the southern Andes that includes glaciers and snowfields, making it an appealing destination for outdoor enthusiasts who hike, mountaineer, and ski in ever increasing numbers in this remote corner of South America. National Parks in both Argentina and Chile are popular tourist attractions that include dramatic scenery and protect habitat for unique flora and fauna.

Patagonia’s southwestern coast includes fjords, many forested coastal islands and highly productive fisheries. Also included within Patagonia are some of the more temperate and densely populated Chilean regions south of the capital city, Santiago. A large indigenous population of Mapuche people and others of mixed European descent inhabit a remarkably beautiful landscape of clear lakes and snow-capped volcanic peaks. It is there in the coastal waters around the grand island of Chiloe where Chile’s large salmon farming industry is centered.

The Chilean economy depends heavily upon exports, including copper, forest products, seafood and fresh fruits. Through much of history, it was Patagonia’s remoteness that limited human settlement and protected its forests from largescale logging. But that is no longer the case, as previously inaccessible areas are under consideration or are already being logged by large international forest and paper products corporations. Many of these ancient forests are cleared and ground up into chips for shipment to foreign paper making industries. These irreplaceable pristine landscapes of the southern hemisphere are being sacrificed in order to meet industrial civilization’s great demand for more wood fiber. At present there is a great need for comprehensive regional planning that includes sustainable harvesting methods with ecologically based wilderness management strategies. This approach can avert over exploitation of Patagonia’s fragile natural resources before they are lost to short-term economic interests.

CASE STUDY:

GONDWANA FORESTS

Gondwanaland is the name given by geologists to one of the two ancient supercontinents that existed on Earth in the distant past. One hundred million years ago, tectonic processes caused Gondwanaland to begin splitting into smaller sections. As continental drift separated these landmasses, new seas formed between them. Present day Africa, Antarctica, South America, Australia and New Zealand, and the Indian subcontinent are all derived from sections of Earths crust that were once part of Gondwanaland. The gradual movement of these sections, called tectonic plates, and their collisions with other land masses in the Northern hemisphere gave rise to Earth’s current configuration of seven continents.

Today there still exist large areas of remnant forest descended from those of Gondwanaland. These Gondwana forests are found in various places in the southern hemisphere, primarily in temperate climates of southern regions in Australia, New Zealand, and South America. The biological importance of these distantly separated forests is the distinct biodiversity they contain, many species of which are links to an ancient era in Earth’s history. In Patagonia and other regions logging has already claimed large portions of these ancient forests. Sometimes they are replanted as eucalyptus or pine plantations, which are productive economically but lack species diversity and reduce the abundance of native flora. Current plans to expand logging operations to previously uncut areas as remote as Tierra del Fuego are threatening to further transform and destroy these unique forest ecosystems.

Presently there is an international effort to preserve and protect the remaining undisturbed Gondwannic forests. The focus is on creating southern forest sanctuaries in various regions where the Gondwana ecosystems remain relatively intact. Native Forest Networks (www.nativeforest.org) is an important partner in the international initiative to establish a Gondwana Forest Sanctuary in the southern hemisphere, and they have international offices in New Zealand and in Australia. In Chile, Los Defensores del Bosques Chilenos is active in education and preservation efforts. Please contact them to learn more about this effort.

Defensores del Bosques Chilenos

Diagonal Oriente 1413

Nunoa-Santiago, Chile9i

Phone: +56-2-22041914

bosquech@entelchile.net