This conservation initiative is protecting ecologically significant landscapes comprised of Chile's Mediterranean habitat -the rarest, most threatened, and least protected ecosystem in the country- by using the Derecho Real de Conservación (DRC), Chile’s breakthrough private lands conservation agreement.

With the financial support of the BHP Foundation's Global Environmental Resilience Program, the Boldo-Cantillana initiative is advancing the protection of a 930,000-hectare landscape corridor, located in Chile's Central Valley. The Boldo-Cantillana corridor extends from the capital city of Santiago to the resort city of Zapallar on the Pacific coast, with the goal of creating critical habitat linkages between the Coastal Range to the Andes Mountains.

Tierra Austral's Boldo-Cantillana project is contributing to Chile’s national goal of protecting approximately 30% of its ecosystems by 2030. Tierra Austral is also increasing public awareness of the local, national, and even global significance of this habitat as well as demonstrating the practicality and effectiveness of the DRC as a land protection tool that accommodates a range of sustainable land uses, including forestry and agriculture, and that is available to private landowners throughout Chile.

This new Derecho Real de Conservación (DRC) agreement will protect the environmental attributes of more than 230 hectares of the Águila Sur Ecological Community, located in the commune of Paine, Metropolitan Region. The property - which has a total of 393 hectares - is part of the Cantillana mountain range, a highly relevant area for climate change resilience, so its protection and conservation is fundamental. Thus, through the implementation of this new DRC agreement, more than 60% of the property will be protected in perpetuity, safeguarding the biological diversity of the Mediterranean ecosystem of Central Chile.

Located in the commune of Futaleufú, Los Lagos region, Fundo Encantado has an area of 118.36 hectares adjacent to the Futaleufú National Reserve, representing an opportunity for the restoration of elements of the ecosystem that have been historically damaged. Thus, the presence of species in conservation category such as the Cordillera Cypress (Austrocedrus chilensis) and fauna as the puma (Puma concolor), güiña (Leopardus guigna) and the huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus), stands out. With the establishment of a Derecho Real de Conservación agreement on 70 hectares of the property, ecosystems of high ecological value and critical habitats on the banks of the Futaleufú River will be protected in perpetuity, allowing sustainable land uses. Tierra Austral's private lands conservation efforts in Chile are supported by the Weeden Foundation, which has also provided  critical assistance to our organization since its inception in 2012. Our DRC projects in Patagonia are also part of a joint initiative with the PEW Charitable Trusts.  

Cerro La Giganta is in the commune of Panquehue, Valparaíso Region. Inserted in the Mediterranean ecosystem of central Chile, the area has an important presence of native and endemic flora. The property has an approximate area of 240 hectares and, through the implementation of a Real Right of Conservation (DRC) agreement, 94% of the property (228 hectares) will be protected in perpetuity. Numerous species in conservation category could be found in La Giganta, such as the guayacán and the carob tree, highlighting, in addition, the presence of four species of native cactus such as the Eriosyce coimasensis (Quisquito de las Coimas), endemic cactus with a geographical distribution limited to the Aconcagua Valley. La Giganta is also a symbolic place for the inhabitants of San Felipe, Panquehue and surroundings, since those who visit it can carry out educational activities in the botanical garden and recreational activities, such as trekking and climbing.

It is comprised entirely of Mediterranean habitat, which is Chile’s rarest, most threatened and least protected habitat, and which has been identified as a global biodiversity hotspot. The owners of Cerro Poqui have now protected the property using two different private lands conservation agreements. First, in 2018, they protecting their land by designating it as the Santuario de la Naturaleza Cerro Poqui. Now, the landowners have decided to conserve the entire property with a Derecho Real de Conservación (DRC) in a partnership with Tierra Austral, which is providing them with technical land management assistance. In addition to the DRC, which permanently protects Cerro Poqui’s conservation values, FTA and the landowner have signed an agreement stating that FTA will make investments in the property and will provide assistance with a range of issues, including updating the management plan, hiring park rangers, adding signage and an interpretive kiosk, etc.

Fundación Tierra Austral and the company Colbún S.A. signed an unprecedented Derecho Real de Conservación (DRC) agreement that will protect in perpetuity 436 hectares on the shores of Lake Chapo, in Los Lagos Region. These lands make up a biological corridor that connects the Alerce Andino National Park and the Llanquihue National Reserve. This agreement, in addition to preserving the natural heritage of most of the surface under DRC, will allow recreational activities and low-impact tourism in strategic areas.

Fundación Tierra Austral works in cooperation with the Pew Charitable Trusts. The goal of this project is to increase large landscape connectivity in Patagonia by entering into Derecho Real de Conservación agreements on properties located adjacent or in close proximity to existing public protected areas.

Working in the early 2010s, Fundación Tierra Austral and Patagonia Sur LLC collaborated on the protection of the 3,200-hectare Valle California landscape, which is located in the Provence of Palena, Los Lagos Region. The two organizations protected Valle California using a predecessor agreement to the Derecho Real de Conservación, which is called the Servidumbre de Conservación.

Valle California has high biological diversity, landscape connectivity for wildlife, a segment of free-flowing whitewater Tigre River, and high elevation lagoons. The Servidumbre agreement designates 93% of the property as a Protected Area, and there are six Limited Development Areas on the remaining land.

Tierra Austal has collaborated with Así Conserva Chile, the leading organization in Chile that represents the owners of private protected areas, on an effort to develop and distribute a set of Best Practices for land conservation, for both transactions and for non-profit conservation entities.

The Tierra Austral-Así Conserva Chile project has developed three sets of standards, including:

• Standards for Privately Protected Areas (PPA)
• Standards for Land Trusts
• Standards for the Derecho Real de Conservación in Chile

This project is funded by the Chilean government program CORFO and its Bienes Públicos Estratégicos para la Competitividad.

Fundación Tierra Austral has entered into an agreement with the Pro Bono Foundation in which the Foundation has made the commitment to provide free legal defense of the Derecho Real de Conservación agreements held by Tierra Austral.

This is an extremely important commitment by the Pro Bono Foundation; it will help ensure the long-term stewardship of and land legal security to Tierra Austral’s Derecho Real de Conservación agreements, and to the conservation landowners with whom we work.

The Fundación Tierra Austral is grateful to the Weeden Foundation for the invaluable assistance that it has provided to our organization since 2014 and to the larger private lands conservation initiative throughout the 2000s.