Ecobreves – CHILE:: Forest Fire Leaves Devastating Bottom Line

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Mar 14 2005 (IPS) - The 16,000 hectares consumed by a fire in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park included native plant species like lenga, coigüe de Magallanes and ñirre, devastating forests and plains that are the habitat of guanacos, puma, fox and rhea. The fire was started accidentally on Feb. 17 by a tourist using a camping stove in an unauthorized area. Some areas continue to smoulder but should be under control soon, according to officials.

Created in 1959, the park was declared a Biosphere Reserve in 1978 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). It is located in the far south and covers 181,000 hectares.

Rodrigo Pizarro, head of the environmental Terram Foundation, the destruction is irreparable. ''We can work to replant, to strengthen conservation efforts, to recreate the forest, but it will never again be the ecosystem that was created naturally over thousands of years,'' he told Tierramérica.