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ENVIRONMENT-CHILE:
A Mega-Trail for
Ecotourism
Gustavo
González*
SANTIAGO, (Tierramérica) -
Twelve environmental projects
will promote ecotourism along
the ''Sendero de Chile'', the
Chilean Trail, which at 8,000
kilometres will be one of the
longest pathways in the world
for hiking or tours on bicycle
or horseback.
The route is to run from Visviri,
on the northern Chilean border
with Peru and Bolivia, to Cape
Horn, the southern tip of South
America, and will cross 40
watershed systems.
Three thousand km of the trail
will pass through areas of
meadows and scrubland, another
1,400 km will be through
forests, and 1,200 km through
desolate regions of deserts,
valleys of volcanic lava or
Patagonian steppes. The route
will even include the distant
Easter Island, out in the
Pacific, which will have an
eight-km stretch of trail.
The route is to be completed in
2010, which is also the
bicentennial of Chile's
independence. But already some
parts of the trail are ready for
use and the initial
environmental projects along the
route have been launched.
The first of 12 sustainable
development initiatives was
inaugurated Apr. 7 in the town
of Requinoa, some 100 km south
of Santiago. The efforts are
being promoted by the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and Chile's National Environment
Commission (CONAMA).
The project, known as ''On the
path of ecotourism and
sustainability'', is a major
contribution, according to Irene
Philippi, UNDP resident
representative in Chile. ''It
will finance activities that
will give greater value to the
Chilean Trail, bring revenues
into its communities and protect
the environment.''
CONAMA and UNDP signed an
agreement in late 2004 to
provide financial backing for
the 12 projects, for a total
investment of 310,000 dollars.
The two institutions bring
together contributions of
190,000 dollars with resources
coming from the Global
Environment Facility and its
Small Grants Programme. The
remaining 120,000 dollars are
contributions from the groups
executing the projects and the
entities associated with them,
mostly community and civil
society groups.
In the context of support for
construction of the Chilean
Trail there was also a
competition for financing
projects throughout the country
of up to 15,500 dollars, with
contributions from UNDP and
CONAMA, regardless of resources
already obtained by the local
organisations themselves.
According to CONAMA director
Paulina Saball, the UNDP
competition is a space for
cooperation on environmental
issues relevant to Chile, as
part of the government's policy
agenda in that area, which seeks
to encourage ''the contribution
of community organisations,
public and private, in
environmental education.''
The lead agency for the Requinoa
project is the Guides and Scouts
Association of Rancagua, capital
of Chile's central Sixth Region.
The initiative includes training
for ecotourism guides (from both
the scouting movement and from
ten local secondary schools),
five educational panels,
construction of a shelter, two
campsites, and two additional
interpretive trails about local
flora and fauna.
There are plans to publish a
manual and to film an
educational video in an effort
to attract visitors, which will
include cooperation with tourism
agencies and local communities.
''Scouting, since its origins,
has been inspired on knowledge
about nature and protecting it.
The initiative to create the
Chilean Trail should be
complemented with projects like
that of Requinoa, with its focus
on education and environmental
sustainability,'' Paola Campos,
a guide for a Santiago scouting
group, told Tierramérica.
One of the projects of the
Chilean Trail to benefit from
small grants is tourism
development in Colchane, on the
high plains border with Bolivia,
around 2,000 km north of
Santiago. That effort is
entrusted to the Aymara Suni
Marka Indigenous Association.
Also to receive financing is a
project of the Atacama desert
town of San Francisco de
Chiu-Chiu, to promote rural
tourism in Inca-Coya, in the
Second Region, located 1,400 km
north of the capital. Both this
and the Colchane projects are
slated for completion in 2006.
The resident council of the
small rural town of San Félix,
in Chile's Third Region, 800 km
north of Santiago, will also
build trails branching off the
Chilean Trail as part of a
locally-based project known as
Los Españoles Tour Route.
(* Originally published Apr. 16
by Latin American newspapers
that are part of the
Tierramérica network.
Tierramérica is a specialised
news service produced by IPS
with the backing of the United
Nations Development Programme
and the United Nations
Environment Programme.)
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