Why does Hacienda Puchegüín need protection?

A critical missing piece in Patagonia’s vast network of protected areas, Hacienda Puchegüín remains vulnerable due to its unprotected status.

Unlike the surrounding 1.6 million hectares of parks and reserves, Puchegüín faces ongoing threats like development, land division, and unregulated tourism.

Since 2022, the sale of Puchegüín has caused concern amongst the local community, scientists and organizations like Puelo Patagonia that have been working for years for the Cochamó region’s conservation. Many feared that the huge property would be purchased by someone without conservation plans, knowledge, or respect for the territory and its population. This sparked the formation of Conserva Puchegüín, an alliance dedicated to securing permanent safeguards for this irreplaceable ecosystem and its communities.

Surrounded by a nearly 1,640,000-hectares contiguous landscape of parks across Chile and Argentina, the Puchegüín property is a key piece in Patagonia’s conservation puzzle. Securing its permanent protection would create one of Latin America’s largest biological corridors, connecting fragmented habitats and allowing for the free movement of wildlife across protected landscapes.

Patagonia is the continent’s second largest carbon sink, making it an essential region in combatting climate change. Chilean Patagonia’s forest cover, peatlands, and wetlands store approximately twice the amount of carbon per hectare as the Amazon. Puchegüín alone is home to 58,819 hectares of primary forest – in sharp global decline throughout the world – as well as an extensive hydrographic network, both of which work to sequester carbon.

Puchegüín provides critical habitat for endemic and endangered species, including huemul deer, Wolffsohn’s viscacha, Darwin’s frog, and monito del monte – one of South America’s only marsupials. The Cochamó region also includes over 23,000 hectares , or 11% of the Chilean population, of alerce trees, known to be some of the oldest trees on earth.