page_title: Conservación Patagónica
section_title: Restoring Biodiversity
hierarchical_section_title: Conservación Patagónica / Restoring Biodiversity
caption_attribution_description: English: Endangered humeul or south Andean deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus)
context_page_description: Conservación Patagónica is a conservation group whose mission is "to create national parks in Patagonia that save and restore wildlands and wildlife, inspire care for the natural world, and generate healthy economic opportunities for local communities." Founded in 2000 by Kristine Tompkins, former CEO of Patagonia, Inc, Conservación Patagónica first focused on the creation of Monte León National Park in Argentina, the country's first coastal national park. The group played the central role in securing the funds for the purchase of Estancia Monte Leon and in creating long-term management plans for the new national park.
context_section_description: The Chacabuco Valley, heart of the future Patagonia National Park, was for generations a vast sheep and cattle ranch, with almost 25,000 animals being raised on the land in a single year. The native grasslands were degraded by years of intense livestock grazing, leading to patchy desertification of the soils, and to the decline of wildlife populations that are native to the grasslands.  Since purchasing the Estancia in 2004, CP has been working to remove fencing and reseed former pastures with native grasses,  opening up the land to the return of native species such as the guanaco, and the endangered huemul deer. Recovery of the huemul is a top priority for the organization, which is conducting projects to monitor and protect the park's population of 100-200 animals, one of the largest known surviving populations on earth.
  Ecosystem Restoration:
  Patagonia has suffered its share of ecological abuse: intensive sheep ranching on sandy, arid soils has resulted in widespread desertification. In the transition from sheep ranch to national park, Conservación Patagónica aims to reverse these damages, restore productive habitat, and create a model of ecosystem restoration for Patagonia.  The grasslands recovery program, launched in 2004, began with removing almost all livestock. Conservación Patagónica's volunteer program performs the bulk of the work of ecosystem restoration.  As of 2011, they have removed over half of the 400 miles of habitat-fragmenting ranch fencing.  Volunteers also collect seeds from native coiron grasses, which professional ecosystem restoration workers use to reseed heavily damaged areas.
  Wildlife Recovery:
  Conservación Patagónica's large-scale ecosystem restoration work serves as the foundation for targeted species-specific programs, such as the effort to monitor and protect the endangered and emblematic huemul deer.  As wildness returns to this vast area, the populations of keystone species are finding a new equilibrium.  With livestock gone, grasslands are producing more and better quality food for a range of herbivores, which have access to prime habitat and can roam freely without fences.  Wildlife recovery programs take this ecosystem-level transition as the jumping-off point for initiatives to protect keystone species. The huemul deer represents the top priority for the Patagonia National Park project: habitat loss, disease transmitted from livestock, hunting, and predation by domestic dogs have diminished its population to 1,500 individuals left on Earth.  Tracking pumas with GPS collars uncovers new information about their predation patterns, home ranges, and movements—critical data given their proximity to the huemul deer population. Simultaneously, Conservación Patagónica is developing strategies, such as livestock guardian dogs, to mitigate predator-livestock conflicts.
caption: Endangered huemul deer, collared as part of recovery program
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D60", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.6.9", "Image DateTime": "2011:02:27 10:12:29", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.5.8", "Image ExifOffset": "230", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:02:25 15:48:39", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:02:25 15:48:39", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "53/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "80", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "80", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "640", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "428", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}