In a meeting with the Minister of Environment, Maisa Rojas, the representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) South America, María Belén Valenzuela, together with the national panel of expert evaluators of IUCN Green List or EAGL Group Chile, officially presented the National Green List Standard for Chile. This is the result of the last three years of work. The IUCN Green List is directly consistent with the country’s conservation and management improvement initiatives, whose action goes hand in hand with the goal of protecting 30% of the planet by 2030, which emerged at the last COP15 on Biodiversity.
The initiative was born in 2012 as a mechanism to support national governments and other stakeholders, so that they can meet global biodiversity conservation goals through improved management of protected areas and, consequently, effective conservation of them. “Having these tools will translate, in the medium and long term, into being able to adaptively face the scenarios imposed on us by the triple crisis of climate change, loss of biodiversity and pollution,” said Minister Rojas.
For her part, Zornitza Aguilar, Regional Coordinator for Protected and Conserved Areas of the IUCN Office for South America, said that “Chile has demonstrated commitment and a clear will to move towards the effective management of its Protected and Conserved Areas through the international standard of the IUCN Green List. This means good governance, design and planning, effective management and successful conservation outcomes. The Green List standard adapted to the Chilean reality constitutes a fundamental tool to guide management, organize cooperation, define priorities and evaluate progress.”
Minister Maisa Rojas receives National Standard Green List for Chile.
Global Conservation Tool
Green List is not only a certification, but a system that allows applicant areas to identify their shortcomings in management and governance, and accompanies them in the development of the improvements necessary to achieve the effective conservation of nature and its various ecological, socioeconomic, cultural and spiritual benefits. Optimal management, in this sense, is measured by a standard that has 4 macro components, 17 criteria and 50 indicators developed and approved by IUCN members, and that make up the IUCN Green List Standard Manual. Although this manual is the technical basis at the global level, each country must adapt it according to its national reality, always promoting management that promotes equity, community participation and, above all, that incorporates management and monitoring plans of high scientific and technical rigor to account for effective results regarding the conservation of biodiversity. Once compliance with this standard has been demonstrated, the area in question can be integrated into the Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas worldwide, which is currently made up of 61 protected areas from 57 countries.
“The National System of Protected Wild Areas of the State (SNASPE) concentrates the administration of 21% of the national territory, with spaces that also have very low human intervention such as Chilean Patagonia, which is a great reservoir of biodiversity, unique and resilient ecosystems, which serve as climate refuges and natural laboratories for the development of science in the face of the challenges of climate change. In this context, the candidacy of the Vicente Pérez Rosales and Cerro Castillo national parks to reach an international standard is a challenge that requires a transversal commitment, both public and private, and that must be placed within an even more challenging project: the design of a public policy for the SNASPE that allows us to advance in a planning for the totality of protected wild areas of the State, which currently number 107 throughout the country,” said Renzo Galgani, manager of Protected Wild Areas at CONAF. This organization, in 2020, carried out an internal self-assessment exercise of 24 protected areas under the international standard of Green List, to identify the main gaps necessary to correct to achieve their effective management. As a result of that exercise, CONAF committed to improving the management of the two national parks closest to meeting the standard (Cer National Park).ro Castillo and Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park) and nominated them to the Green List with a view to being certified in the medium term and entering the World Green List.
“Today, an international system is being implemented in Chile so that national protected areas, regardless of their organic governance, can demonstrate positive results for biodiversity conservation, based on a standard that integrates a modern vision of the development and management of these areas. Working under these parameters will undoubtedly be a tremendous contribution to the effective conservation of protected areas in Patagonia, and to the generation of benefits for local communities,” said César Guala, executive director of the UACH’s Austral Patagonia Program, and implementing partner of IUCN Green List in Chile.
For his part, Maximiliano Sepúlveda, senior officer of The Pew Charitable Trusts, added that “Chile finally has a north where all our protected areas should point to ensure their effective management guaranteeing the protection of ecosystems and improving the good living of the communities that surround these areas, either through the provision of clean water. Pure air, shelter against natural disasters, recreation, among others. Setting these standards brings our country closer to meeting the global commitments agreed at COP15 in Montreal, where it was proposed that by 2030 30% of the planet’s terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems be protected areas with effective and equitable management.”
Download here the National Green List Standard for Chile
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