A comprehensive characterization of private conservation initiatives in Chile

Background/Question/Methods

There is a broad consensus that private protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services has a key role in human-dominated landscapes. In Chile, 65% of the land that is not within the Chilean National Parks and Reserves System is privately owned. This percentage is significantly higher in critically endangered and underrepresented ecosystems, such as the Mediterranean-climate region, where less than 1% of the land is protected within public parks, and more than 95% is in the hands of private landowners. Private conservation initiatives (PCIs) can fill in gaps in the protection of ecosystems and ecological functions, as well as improve territorial and biological connectivity among private and public protected areas. One fundamental problem is that PCIs in Chile lacks legal status and had not been inventoried. To this, we add that there are no operative definitions, standards, or administrative procedures to regulate the terms and conditions for private conservation and potential Government incentives. Our objective here was to provide a comprehensive characterization of all the PCIs in Chile, considering their number, areal extent, geographic distribution, legal ownership, longevity, motivations, and ecological values, including ecosystem services, and administration and management capacities, using surveys and interviews with landowners.

Results/Conclusions

Results highlight the contribution of PCIs to biodiversity conservation in Chile and suggest a framework to improve its legal status and sustainability. We identified 308 PCIs (for a total of 1.6 million ha), 242 of which responded the survey. The majority of land is in small (under 200 ha) and medium-size (under 1,000 ha) properties.  About 1 million ha, however, were accounted for by just five large projects.  About 260,000 ha are within indigenous territories. Current management is mostly implemented intuitively and spontaneously by individual landowners, who also act as administrators. Landowners cite an average of 3.8 management objectives per protected area. The most frequent goals cited were the “provision of ecosystem services” (14%), “conducting research” (13%), “sustainable resource management” (12%), “restoration” (12%), and “strict preservation” (10%). PCIs overlap substantially (44% of land) with previously designated National conservation priorities, and in the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, they protect as much land as the State. Among the shortcomings, 60% of PCI lack management plans and significant monetary income (25% operate with less than US$2,000/year). Legal recognition of PCIs in Chile together with the right monetary and non-monetary incentives should enhance their capacity to maintain biodiversity and provision ecosystem services to Chilean society.