Located in Chilean Patagonia, Torres del Paine National Park is considered by many as the 8th wonder of the world. This will come as no surprise to those adventurers who have been lucky enough to gaze upon the park’s jagged peaks and turquoise lakes.
Of course, where natural beauty and adventure abound, people often do too. Every year, hundreds of thousands of travelers visit the park. In the last four years alone, visitation has doubled, and in 2016 reached a historic record of 252,000. These figures are expected to keep rising at a pace of 10 percent annually.
Unfortunately, Torres del Paine’s soaring popularity has also been accompanied by an increase in man-made forest fires. Since 1985, the park has lost one-fifth of its 242,000 hectares to fires, all of which were started by tourists. These fires devastated native Lenga tree forests and the habitats of already endangered species.
It will take decades to reverse the damage done to this unique ecosystem. But time is not all it will take. Restoration will also require substantial resources and manpower.
Finding sufficient resources to address these types of challenges can be difficult. This is exactly why theTorres del Paine Legacy Fund was established in partnership with Sustainable Travel International. The Legacy Fund helps to mobilize resources to address these challenges, ensuring the long-term health of Torres del Paine and its surrounding communities.
To accomplish this mission, the Legacy Fund identifies local sustainability projects in need of resources. All projects support at least one of the Fund’s main objectives: restoring ecosystems, improving tourism infrastructure, promoting community development, and diversifying recreation opportunities in the region. The Fund then calls upon travelers and tourism businesses for support. By connecting their dollars with important causes, the Legacy Fund provides travelers and tourism businesses a way to give back and support the places they care about.
To help restore fire damaged areas of the Park, the Legacy Fund has partnered with local conservation NGO,(AMA) Torres del Paine, on a lenga tree reforestation project.
The trip was not only memorable for the amount of animals we saw but also for the people and accommodations at the two camps where we stayed. Our first guide, BK, was a wealth of information about the animals, landscape and down to the plants and what they were used for. Everyday out was a learning experience with him. All the people at the camps were gracious and the food was excellent.
Our second camp in the Okavanga was just as good as the first as far as the staff, accommodations, food and animals. After our experience at the first camp we amazed that the high quality remained the same. Our guide, G, made sure we were able to enjoy every experience including a rush through the bush to witness a cheetah and an ensuing hunt that he heard over his radio.
In both camps there were enough guides out that if they saw something the other guides were informed which helped in seeing as much as possible. It was also nice that the concessions were large enough that we did not have vehicles following each other throughout the day.
Normally there is always something in a trip of this length that we think could be improved upon but this is the rare case where we cannot think of anything. From the time we left the States to when we returned it was one of the most hassle free vacations we took.
Perhaps emphasizing the use of the laundry facilities at the camps would be useful because of the luggage restrictions would be the only thing I can think of as an improvement to future clients.
Kenneth Dropek
1 day ago
Mary was so pleasant and professional. She made sure all of our questions were answered.