![]() ![]() The protection and restoration of nature is not necessarily the same as conservation. They are interested in developing a long-term management plan for the land, but are unconvinced that a DRC is a good match for their conservation interests (their deed categorizes the land as agricultural, but they wish to prohibit logging, agriculture, and tourism). ![]() Sobakina was one of the speakers at the California Council of Land Trusts “ Chile California Conservation Conference” held in 2017 in Sonoma, California. One of the objectives of the meeting was to “gather ideas that may be useful in implementing Chile’s recently passed Derecho Real de Conservación legislation by looking at varieties of conservation easements and other land protection tools." At her presentation, according to the official conference report, Sobakina was not yet convinced that the tool was right for their project: "They bought the property in 2006 and have been systematically restoring the land through native tree reforestation. Its motto was: "profitable conservation.” Also participating in the real estate venture was Arístides Benavente, a conservative businessman from Santiago who has been active in Aysén for several years and was a member of the advisory council of Friends of the Parks. The ex-Patagonia Sur has already sold off almost all of its properties in the far south at Valle California, the Palena River, Lake Espolón, Tortel, Jeinimeni, Leones River and Melimoyu. To date, Reforestemos Patagonia (now called “Reforestemos”) has had the support of CMPC/Mininco and Arauco, responsible for the millions of acres of non-native, pine and eucalyptus tree plantations in southern Chile and their many negative environmental and social impacts. Thomas Kimber was also one of the initiators of Reforestemos Patagonia, an organization linked to the now defunct real estate group Patagonia Sur created by American investor Warren Adams, which has stood out as one of the Aysén property brokers with a self-appointed conservationist spirit, and in which Charles Kimber has been one of its original investors. The controversial move was rejected by the Aysén Regional Council and the application was stopped in its tracks. Toward the end of 2020, in Caleta Tortel, a town at the mouth of the Baker River in the Aysen region, it was announced that Paola Luksic would be awarded more than 10,000 hectares of publicly owned land at Ventisquero Montt (located on the northern border of Bernardo O'Higgins National Park and the Southern Patagonian Ice Field) for 30 years, paying an annual concession rent of 13,500,000 pesos (about $US 16,650). ![]() ![]() Today, conservation, which many of the region's residents mobilized for, also seems to respond to decisions made in another time and place. Previously, in other latitudes, it was determined that the Aysén region would be a great energy pantry, with transnational companies trying to impose a development model based on the construction of large dams. In the Aysen region of Chilean Patagonia, the author writes that efforts to protect and conserve land – which sometimes include the subdivision of properties into numerous lots for re-sale – are often done outside of the regional public planning process and with little participation from the people who actually live there. ![]()
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