Valdivian Coastal Reserve

Description

Southern Chile has a diverse ecosystem along its narrow strip of land crowded between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. This area contains the world’s second largest temperate rainforest and the only one in South America. The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has designated the area Valdivian Ecoregion. The Lakes District lies to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Patagonia to the south. In 2003 the World Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, and other national and international organizations purchased 150,000 acres of land in Chaihuín, creating the Valdivian Coastal Reserve. This is a private reserve open to the public, with 23 miles of oceanfront and beautiful white sand beaches.

Flora and Fauna

The Valdivian Coastal Reserve stretches about 36.5 kilometers on the coastline. Almost half of its extent are beaches, while the rest consists of forest-covered cliffs. The entire area is home to thousands of acres of temperate rainforest, five river basins and a great diversity of endemic species of flora and fauna. This coastal forest is a remnant of millennia past — when it was connected to the forests of New Zealand and Australia. In fact, some species are more closely related to species from those distant places rather than the Americas. During the last Ice Age, this coastal range served as a freeze-free refuge for a multitude of species found nowhere else on Earth.