Magellan’s y la
Antartica Chilena
Area: 935 mi2 (2,242 km2)
Height: 10,006 ft
(3,050 m)
Torres del Paine National Park is one of the
most important protected wildlife areas in Chile. It is located
between the Andes Mountains and the Patagonian steppe, in the
Commune of Torres del Paine, province of Última Esperanza,
between 51° south latitude and 72° 57' west longitude, about 150
km from Puerto Natales. and 318.2 km from Punta Arenas. It was
created in 1959 and is managed by the National Forest
Corporation.
With a territory of 227,298 hectares, it
includes the Paine mountain range and its famous massif, which
includes the Paine Grande summits and their well-known towers,
which give it its name. In its interior there are a great
variety of natural geographic landmarks such as valleys, the
Paine river, the Grey, Pehoé, Nordenskjöld and Sarmiento lakes,
and the Grey, Pingo and Tyndall glaciers, belonging to the
Southern Patagonian Ice Field. As of 1978, the area was
incorporated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO.
Known
internationally for the scenic beauty of its surroundings, it
annually receives more than 280,000 visitors, most of them
foreigners, becoming the third Chilean protected area for
visits, Among its recognitions, in a special edition of National
Geographic magazine, Torres del Paine were chosen as the fifth
most beautiful place in the world. Likewise, the park was
selected as the eighth wonder of the world in 2013, after
receiving more than five million votes in the contest held by
the Virtual Tourist site .
Owner of a rich history, this
territory was first inhabited by the Aonikenk or Tehuelche
indigenous people, whose records, in some cases, reach more than
3,500 years of history, and whose vestiges are found within the
current national park. seriously affected by the arrival of
western settlers in the area of Última Esperanza from the year
1870, which led to its expulsion and disappearance. From the
year 1900, the area was subject to rapid colonization for
livestock exploitation, being subdivided into 12 properties that
ranged in size between 600 and more than 10,000 hectares. In
1959, as a result of different campaigns by inhabitants of the
region and visitors, during the government of President Jorge
Alessandri, a first protected area was established, the which
was rapidly and successively enlarged to its current size.
The establishment of this national park has allowed the
protection and recovery of large areas previously exploited for
livestock and agricultural purposes, in addition to a
transformation of the economy of the Region with a sustained
growth of tourism and its associated services. It has been
estimated per year 2018, that this park contributes to 10% of
the regional gross domestic product, equivalent to M$190,000.
Despite this situation, the territory has been affected by large
forest fires that have damaged large areas of its territory,
highlighting the events of the years 1883, 1985 (12,500 ha),
2005 (15,000 ha) and 2011-2012 ( 17,600 ha).
The park was created on May 13, 1959. In 1977, Guido
Monzino donated 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) to the Government of
Chile and its definitive boundaries were established. UNESCO declared it
a biosphere reserve on April 28, 1978.
In recent years, the park
has had to face various forest fires caused by man, which have consumed
vast extensions of vegetation. On February 10, 1985, a Japanese tourist
left a cigarette butt poorly put out, sparking a fire that consumed
nearly 14,000 hectares of the park. Twenty years later, a Czech tourist
knocked over a stove and started another fire, which burned an area of
more than 15,000 hectares, of which more than 11,000 directly affected
the park. The government of the Czech Republic paid for 30,000 trees to
cooperate with the reforestation of the damaged area. At the end of
2011, the Torres del Paine National Park was again the victim of a huge
forest fire, which consumed more than 17,000 hectares, this once due to
an Israeli citizen lighting toilet paper in an unauthorized place. The
Chilean government appreciated Argentina's help in its attempt to
contain this latest fire, whose proportions required international
support.
In December 2017, through an audit of the Regional
Comptroller of Magallanes, multiple irregularities were noticed by the
regional National Forestry Corporation, among which the lack of
documentation regarding the change of use of certain lands and the lack
of control of concession sectors.
See also: Torres del Paine
forest fire of 2011–2012
Access roads
It is accessed at any time
of the year by paved Route CH-9, which connects Punta Arenas and Puerto
Natales and continues along a recently paved road for about 100 km and
then along a gravel road. In winter, it is advisable to use chains due
to the unstable weather conditions. It can also be reached by sea and
air.
According to the Köppen classification, the park is in
the temperate cold rainy climate zone without a dry season. The
meteorological conditions of the park are very variable due to the
complex orography.
Pluviometry
The rainiest months are March
and April, with a monthly average of 80 mm. This represents double the
period July-October, which are the driest months.
Temperature
The area is characterized by cool summers, with temperatures below 16 °C
during the hottest month (January). Winter is relatively harsh, with an
average minimum temperature of the coldest month (July) of -2.5 °C.
Wind
Strong winds prevail throughout the year in the Torres del
Paine National Park and its surroundings. Sometimes they can reach gusts
of up to 150 km/h, as happened on February 16, 2016, when a bus
overturned as a result of the wind, for which eleven passengers were
injured.
Geography
Hydrology
The park has a large drainage
network, formed by numerous rivers, streams, lakes, lagoons and
waterfalls that are born from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and run
from the northeast to the Ultima Esperanza Sound, which bathes the
coasts of the city of Puerto Natales. The water courses have a very
rugged longitudinal profile, with sudden changes in their slope,
generating waterfalls and rapids.
The Southern Ice Field occupies
the entire western part of the park. It feeds four major glaciers; these
are, from north to south, the Dickson, Grey, Zapata and Tyndall
glaciers, the latter with a strong retreat. The largest is the Gray
Glacier. Its front is divided into two arms, due to the appearance of a
peninsula in the ice, commonly called the Island or Nunatak, which is
discovered a little more for each year that has elapsed. The eastern
branch is about 1.2 km long while the western branch is about 3.6 km
wide. The length of the glacier in its route through the interior of the
park is 15 km.a
Biodiversity
Flora
The last major study on
the flora of the park was carried out by Pisano in 1974. This study
contemplates four biotic zones that make up the territorial complex of
the park, determined by the type of vegetation:
Pre-Andean
xerophytic scrub
Confined to flat lands and plateaus, most of them
have adaptations for water storage. Exposed to the intense wind, their
territory extends mainly over a more or less continuous strip of
variable width, on plateaus, in small heights on the western edge of the
massif and north of Lake Sarmiento. Further north, between Laguna Amarga
and Laguna Azul, it intermingles with the Patagonian steppe. The
dominant species is Mulinum spinosum (matta mud) associated with the
species Anarthrophyllum desideratum, Discaria serratifolia, Nardophyllum
obtusifolium and Baccharis magellanica. The herbaceous cover is rich in
species such as Acaena integerrima, Collomia biflora, Festuca
gracillima, Festuca magellanica, etc. It is one of the most important
Andean paramo ecosystems in Chile and one of the six most important in
the world.
Magellanic forests
In the Magellanic deciduous
forest, trees of the genus Nothofagus, false beeches, or southern
beeches, such as the ñirre (Nothofagus antarctica) and the lenga
(Nothofagus pumilio), predominate.
In the evergreen Magellan rain
forest, the Magellanic coigüe (Nothofagus betuloides) dominates, which
is an evergreen or evergreen tree. The notro or ciruelillo (Embothrium
coccineum), is a small tree with intense red flowers.
Patagonian
steppe
The Patagonian steppe, subject to great hydric stress,
presents plants adapted to drought, highlighting gramineous pastures and
spiny, thorny shrubs with low cover. Some of the species present in the
Patagonian steppe are Hyalis argentea, Poa ligularis, Jarava humilis,
Senecio filaginoides, Grindelia chiloensis, Chuquiraga avellanedae,
Chuquiraga erinacea (hystrix subspecies), Lycium chilense, Acantholippia
seriphioides, Mulinum spinosum, Larrea divaricata, Schinus johnstonii,
Condalia microphylla, Prosopis alpataco, Prosopidastrum globosum,
Atriplex lampa, Suaeda divaricatav and Ephedra ochreata.
andean
desert
Characterized by dryness, strong winds and cold, this biome is
characterized by poor vegetation and scarce coverage, predominantly
grasses and some thorny bushes adapted to water deficit, cold and strong
winds.
Fauna
The fauna of the park is very varied, since it
has a large amount of native Chilean fauna. The easiest to observe are
the guanacos, which travel in large herds; There are also culpeo and
chillas, furry foxes, chingues, huemules, which live mainly in the
park's forests, piches, rheas, condors, eagles, a great variety of
ducks, coots, black-necked and coscoroba swans, tucúqueres, kingfishers,
chunchos, buds, pumas, which are highly protected in the area, and
güiñas, which are much rarer.
Subsoil protection
Torres del
Paine National Park has subsoil protection as a place of scientific
interest for mining purposes, as established in Article 17 of the Mining
Code. These tasks can only be carried out with a written permit from the
President of the Republic and also signed by the Minister of Mining.
The condition of place of scientific interest for mining purposes
was established by Supreme Decree No. 131 of August 29, 1989 and
published on October 21, 1989, which establishes the protection polygon.