This week, Freyja Foundation joined forces with local and global partners to launch Conserva Puchegüín – a campaign aiming to acquire and protect Hacienda Puchegüín, a 132,995-hectare private property in Chilean Patagonia’s Cochamó Valley. Building on Freyja’s 2023 land purchase, this campaign deepens our commitment to Cochamó and targets a comprehensive conservation strategy for the region for generations to come. 

Known throughout the world as the “Yosemite of South America,” Cochamó is home to thousand-meter granite walls; glaciers, rivers, and plunging waterfalls; massive groves of alerce trees; and many endangered and endemic species. The region is also home to several small communities whose traditional way of life still thrives.  

Hacienda Puchegüín – the vast property the new campaign aims to protect – caught the attention of local and international conservation organizations when it was listed for sale in 2022. Though surrounded by 1,630,000 hectares of Chilean and Argentine parks, reserves, and nature sanctuaries, the property has lacked the legal and environmental protection necessary to shield it from a wide variety of threats that have endangered the area in the past. Thus, the acquisition of Puchegüín represents not only an opportunity to protect the region’s ecological and cultural heritage, but also to ensure the integrity of one of the most significant biological corridors in Latin America.   

Led by local NGO Puelo Patagonia in collaboration with Freyja, The Nature Conservancy, Patagonia, Inc., and Wyss Foundation, the Conserva Puchegüín campaign seeks to raise 78 million USD, which, along with purchasing the entire property, will facilitate the planning and design of a conservation and management plan for the region, as well as fortify local infrastructure and services. The alliance aims to complete this project in phases over an estimated seven-year period.

Puchegüín: a place of extreme ecological value for Chile and the world 

The Puchegüín area, known the world over for its natural beauty and geologic grandeur, contains more than 58,000 hectares of primary forest – a resource disappearing at an alarming rate around the world. This figure includes 18,000 hectares of endangered alerce trees – one of the world’s longest living species of trees – accounting for roughly 10% of the alerce habitat in Chile. These temperate forests contribute to the region’s carbon sequestration capacity: Patagonia is the continent’s second-largest carbon sink, with Chilean Patagonia’s extensive forest cover, peatlands, and wetlands storing approximately twice the amount of carbon per hectare as the Amazon.    

In addition, Puchegüín also encompasses an enormous reserve of freshwater and provides critical habitat for other endangered and endemic species such as huemul, Patagonian vizcacha, Darwin’s frog, and monito del monte – one of South America’s only marsupials. 

A locally-led initiative of sustainable cultural conservation and responsible economic development 

Puchegüín is home to a unique mountain community with a deeply rooted Gaucho culture, characterized by horsemanship, agrarianism, and small-scale livestock farming. This initiative seeks to develop a model of sustainable economic growth that will support – not destroy – local traditions, culture, and ways of life. Building off of Puelo Patagonia’s local expertise and experience, Conserva Puchegüín not only centers the needs of the local communities as the foundation for any and all development, but also actively seeks their involvement. Conserva Puchegüín respects these communities’ long and successful tenure as stewards of this land and recognizes their presence as a defense against irresponsible and unsustainable future development.  

Thus, purchasing the Puchegüín property will catalyze a local economy where conservation and ecotourism complement traditional livelihoods – fostering the types of sustainable development linked to any new protected are, reducing poverty, improving wellbeing, and strengthening the community social fabric. 

Conserva Puchegüín: a unique alliance with a modern vision for the future of conservation 

As far back as the early 2010s, NGOs in the Cochamó region have successfully halted a number of high-impact projects slated for this private property. Hacienda Puchegüín’s 2022 sale listing sparked concern amongst local communities and conservation groups who feared that a new owner may lack the requisite knowledge and respect for the territory and its populace. Conserva Puchegüín emerged to combat this possibility. This alliance combines the deep knowledge and local experience of Puelo Patagonia with the global perspective and proven success in large-scale conservation and fundraising projects of The Nature Conservancy, Freyja Foundation, Patagonia, Inc., and Wyss Foundation.   

Conserva Puchegüín now embarks on an extensive international campaign aimed at mobilizing donors interested in supporting the initiative. Alongside national and international outreach, the alliance will continue to center local community members and authorities, encouraging their active participation and engagement in project design and planning.  

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONSERVA PUCHEGÜÍN CAMPAIGN ⭢

Major conservation victory in Chilean Patagonia

After months of negotiations, a major new conservation property has been purchased in southern Chile’s Cochamó Valley—often called “The Yosemite of South America—courtesy of Freyja Foundation, Puelo Patagonia, and Organización Valle Cochamó.

The 309-hectare parcel—which Freyja Foundation bought from Chilean businessman and CEO of The Real Eco State, Felipe Escalona—is a critical piece of the Cochamó conservation puzzle and is a key access point for the only trail into the valley. Tens of thousands of visitors come to the Cochamó valley annually, with more arriving every year. Aside from the rare few who enter via an arduous multi-day trek from Argentina, the vast majority hike in via a 12 km section of the historic Paso El León trail, 8 km of which traverses the length of Freyja’s newly purchased land.

After acquiring the property in 2022, Escalona planned to subdivide and sell the lot as dozens of private parcels. This caused concern among conservation-minded citizens and local and international NGOs, who have for years applied a community management model to regulate tourism and protect this world-renowned natural and cultural treasure.

“I’ve walked the length of this property countless times on my way into the Cochamó valley,” says Chris Kalman, Executive Director of Friends of Cochamó, and author of numerous climbing routes on Cochamó’s granite walls. “There’s a calm to the forest, a peaceful quiet, which makes you feel like you are entering another, purer, better world. To have dozens of private property owners up there, all cutting down trees, building houses, campaigning for roads, who knows what else—that would irrevocably and negatively alter the fundamental experience of any visit to Cochamó.”

Freyja’s new land is an important piece of old-growth Valdivian rainforest—home to endangered and endemic species, such as the tiny Huemul deer, Darwin’s Frog, and the Monito del Monte, a tiny marsupial often referred to as “the living fossil,” as it is the only living species in the ancient order, Microbiotheria. This special swath of temperate forest also hosts thousand-year-old Alerce trees (a southern relative of the Giant Sequoia). Both this parcel and the trail that bisects it parallel the crystalline Cochamó River, whose azure waters provide sustenance for countless human and nonhuman inhabitants in the region.

A history of conservation victories

This is not the first time local NGOs and community leaders in the Cochamó region have joined forces to protect this special valley. In 2009, local activists successfully lobbied then-president Michelle Bachelet to protect the Cochamó River from a series of hydroelectric dams. In 2016, the Puelo Sin Torres campaign shut down a similar hydroelectric project that had been slated for the next river south, the Rio Manso. More recently, Friends of Cochamó and Freyja Foundation helped bring international attention to campaigns spearheaded by Puelo Patagonia and Organización Valle Cochamó to achieve conservation designations for Cochamó as a ZOIT (Zone of Touristic Importance) and a Nature Sanctuary.

On January 26, 2023, the Chilean government’s Council of Ministers established the Cochamó Valley Nature Sanctuary (CVNS), protecting roughly 11,000 hectares of native forest, rivers, and wetlands. While a massive victory for conservation in Cochamó, the current CVNS comprises less than half of the Cochamó river watershed, all of which the aforementioned organizations hope to eventually include under the CVNS umbrella.

“This is an important step toward the eventual goal of protecting the Cochamó Valley and surrounding region,” said Brady Robinson, Director of Philanthropy at Freyja Foundation. “The work isn’t over, but this is a key piece of the puzzle, and sets an important precedent for future conservation efforts in Cochamó.”

Andrés Amengual, director of Puelo Patagonia, echoed Robinson’s sentiments. “This purchase represents a milestone of collaboration between private parties of utmost relevance for the future of the valley, and we are excited that the new owners of the property will join the efforts to protect its natural characteristics and ensure its historical, recreational, and tourist uses.”

What’s next for Freyja Foundation and Cochamó?

The immediate next step for Freyja Foundation is to secure a Derecho Real de Conservación (DRC)—a powerful conservation easement law for private property owners in Chile to manage and protect land for conservation purposes.

In the meantime, they will continue to research and assess what it will take to add their new property to the CVNS, which it currently neighbors. It would be a logical move for the parcel and signal further collaboration between themselves and other players, but ultimately, only the government can decide.

In collaboration with their local partners and sister organizations, Freyja Foundation will manage the area to promote conservation, responsible outdoor recreation, and respect for local cultures and traditions. That means the land will be kept free of development for the foreseeable future.

“The acquisition of this property will allow us to improve the management of the valley by preserving its ecosystems, offering a better visitor experience to the area, and maintaining the ways of life and work for the local communities,” said Tatiana Sandoval, president of Organización Valle Cochamó.

Sandoval expressed gratitude for the willingness and commitment shown by all parties in preserving the valuable space for future generations: “I hope that this gesture sets a precedent for real estate agencies and private companies to work to protect nature, both in our country and in other places around the world.”

“From our first visit to Cochamó five years ago, we fell in love with the valley and the greater Puchegüín. We immediately understood its significance as an important carbon sink and place of great beauty. To us, it was a no-brainer to purchase this strategic property and protect it,” added Anne Deane, president of the Freyja Foundation. “We look forward to continuing our conservation work with our new friends at Puelo Patagonia and Organización Valle Cochamó.”