You know that feeling when you’re standing somewhere so beautiful it takes your breath away? Well, picture this: I’m perched on a rocky outcrop in Torres del Paine, fingers frozen around my coffee thermos, binoculars in the other hand, waiting for sunrise. I mean, I’m a conservation biologist—I’ve seen my fair share of stunning places. But this? This is different.
So the sky starts doing this incredible thing where it turns from black to purple to the most intense pink/orange you’ve ever seen, and the park’s massive granite towers—they’re literally glowing. And right at that moment, a herd of guanacos, wild relatives of the llama, appeared in the distance like it’s just another morning in Patagonia. I almost dropped my coffee!
The funny thing is, I’d spent months studying this place. I had all these maps and scientific papers about Chile’s Route of Parks of Patagonia—this incredible 1,700-mile stretch of protected wilderness. But let me tell you, no amount of research prepares you for that moment when you’re actually there, when you’re watching a herd of guanacos, wild relatives of the llama, emerge from the morning mist like ghosts.
Rafa is standing beside me—my host and guide who became one of my favorite people during this whole journey. He’s got his binoculars in hand, searching for pumas, and he just gives me this knowing look like, ‘Pretty spectacular, right?’ And that’s when it hit me: this isn’t just about the jaw-dropping landscapes or the incredible wildlife. It’s about the people who pour their hearts into protecting these wild places.
Welcome to Where the Wild Calls
I’m Brooke Mitchell, and I can’t wait to share this journey with you. For this season of Rewildology, we’re going to explore Chile’s Route of Parks of Patagonia together. Trust me, it’s going to be quite a ride—we’ll track pumas, hike through ancient forests, meet some of the most passionate conservationists you’ll ever encounter, and hopefully, by the end, you’ll understand why these places matter so much to all of us.
Throughout this series, I hope to share not just the facts and figures that make this conservation corridor remarkable, but the feeling of standing in these places where wildness still reigns.
But before we almost fall over from wind gusts and hop on bush flights, let’s start at the beginning—with Patagonia itself.
The Story of Chile’s Wild Lands
This wild landscape I’m standing in has a story that stretches back millions of years, to a time when the Andes Mountains were just beginning to rise from the Earth. When most people think of Chile, they might picture a long, skinny country on a map. But standing here amid the majestic peaks and windswept valleys of Patagonia, what I’m witnessing is far more breathtaking than any map could possibly convey.
Imagine taking all of Chile and laying it across North America—it would stretch from Mexico all the way up to Alaska. That’s over 2,700 miles of the most diverse landscapes you could dream up. In the north, you’ve got the Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert in the world. And as you move south, the landscape transforms like chapters in a book—from Mediterranean valleys dotted with vineyards, through temperate rainforests draped in mist, all the way down to the wind-swept peaks and glaciers of Patagonia where I’m standing now.
The Geological Marvel of Patagonia
To truly appreciate this region, we need to understand the remarkable forces that shaped this landscape. The story begins about 200 million years ago, when South America was still pressed against Africa as part of the supercontinent Gondwana. As these landmasses drifted apart, something dramatic happened—the Andes Mountains began to rise.
Picture two of Earth’s tectonic plates colliding in slow motion. The Nazca Plate, carrying part of the Pacific Ocean floor, started diving beneath South America. This massive collision forced the Earth’s crust to crumple upward, creating the longest mountain chain in the world. The Andes didn’t just change the landscape, however. They transformed the entire climate of the continent.
These mountains act like a giant wall, catching storms rolling in from the Pacific. When moisture-laden clouds hit the Andes, they’re forced upward and cooled, dropping their rain on the western slopes. This creates one of the most dramatic rainfall gradients on Earth. Standing in the temperate rainforests on the Chilean side, you might get drenched by 4,000 millimeters of rain annually. But just a few kilometers east, over in Argentina, the same latitude receives less than 300 millimeters. It’s like crossing from Ireland to the Sahara in the space of a day’s hike.
This remarkable climate gradient creates extraordinary biodiversity throughout Patagonia. In the temperate rainforests, you’ll find alerce trees that can live over 3,000 years—some of the oldest living things in South America. The “Gran Abuelo” or “Great Grandfather” has been growing for possibly 5,400 years. When this tree was a sapling, the pyramids hadn’t yet been built.
As you journey south, the landscape transforms into vast grasslands, or pampas, where guanacos—wild relatives of llamas—roam in herds hundreds strong. These grasslands support an intricate food web including pumas, Andean condors with their ten-foot wingspans, and the endangered huemul deer. It’s one of the last places on Earth where you can still see large herbivores and their predators interacting in their natural habitat.
Perhaps most dramatic are the glaciers—enormous rivers of ice that have been sculpting this landscape for millions of years. The Southern Patagonian Ice Field is the third-largest expanse of continental ice outside the poles, over 12,000 km2 in size. Beyond their breathtaking beauty, these glaciers serve as critical barometers of our changing climate, offering visible evidence of global environmental shifts.
Cultural History of Chilean Patagonia
Long before European explorers arrived, indigenous peoples like the Mapuche, Kawésqar, and Yaghan developed profound relationships with these environments, understanding the interconnectedness that modern conservation efforts now strive to protect.
The Mapuche, whose name literally means “People of the Land,” cultivated the forests of central Chile through sophisticated management practices. Their fundamental understanding of what they call “itrofill mongen”—the interconnectedness of all living things—mirrors what modern ecologists are only now rediscovering. In the maze of southern fjords, the Kawésqar people developed navigation expertise that would impress any modern meteorologist. At the continent’s southernmost tip, the Yaghan adapted to survive conditions European sailors found unbearable.
These cultures didn’t just survive in these landscapes—they actively shaped them, maintaining ecological balances that kept both human communities and natural systems healthy. Walking through these parks today, you can still find traces of this relationship—ancient shell middens along coastlines, traditional gathering spots tucked into forest clearings. This living heritage teaches us that meaningful conservation extends beyond protecting untouched wilderness—it embraces and celebrates the enduring relationship between human communities and the lands they’ve stewarded for thousands of years.
Colonial Impact and Resistance
The arrival of Spanish conquistadors in 1536 marked the beginning of a profound transformation. Where indigenous peoples had seen interconnected living systems, the Europeans saw resources to extract. Ancient alerce trees—some over 3,000 years old—were harvested for their rot-resistant timber. Vast tracts of native forest were cleared for agriculture and ranching.
What makes Chile’s story unique in colonial South America is the Mapuche resistance. They successfully fought Spanish control for over 300 years, maintaining independence in their southern territories well into the 19th century. This resistance inadvertently helped preserve many landscapes that are now part of the Route of Parks of Patagonia. The region’s sheer ruggedness—those same mountains and forests that make it so spectacular—helped protect both its ecological and cultural diversity from complete transformation.
From Exploitation to Conservation
After gaining independence in 1818, Chile faced a crucial question: what kind of nation would it become? For much of the 19th century, the drive for economic development won out. But by the early 20th century, Chileans began noticing the consequences of unchecked extraction. Those magnificent alerce forests were disappearing at an alarming rate. Pristine grasslands were slowly turning to desert from overgrazing.
This awakening led to Chile’s first protected area in 1907, the Malleco Forest Reserve. It was a small start, but it marked a crucial shift in how Chileans viewed their natural heritage. The real game-changer came in the 1990s when Douglas and Kristine Tompkins arrived on the scene, the visionaries behind the Route of Parks of Patagonia. More about their extraordinary story in a moment.
Today, we’re witnessing a remarkable convergence—indigenous ecological knowledge, modern conservation science, and sustainable tourism working together to protect these landscapes. The Route of Parks of Patagonia represents a revolutionary conservation approach that simultaneously safeguards natural ecosystems while creating sustainable economic opportunities for surrounding communities.
What Is the Route of Parks of Patagonia?
All of these incredible landscapes I’ve just described—the ancient forests, glacial valleys, and windswept pampas—they’re now part of something revolutionary in conservation: Chile’s Route of Parks of Patagonia. Let me put this into perspective: we’re talking about 2,008 kilometers (that’s about 1,700 miles) of connected wilderness, linking together 17 national parks, with plans for an 18th park at Cape Froward. But what makes this project truly special isn’t just its size —it’s its vision.
I chatted with Rafa, the founder of BirdsChile and my guide through much of this journey, to understand what makes the Route of Parks of Patagonia different. As we stood in front of a park sign in Pumalin National Park, Rafa explained something crucial about the project’s philosophy.
Rafa:
The Route of the Parks of Patagonia is a route of 17 national parks. In the future, it will be 18 with Cabo Froward National Park. 60 communities, 2,008 kilometers from north to south. and of course a group of national parks that are public, or they are all public.
Some of them were donated by Rewilding Foundation. And some others were basically parks that have already been there and administered by the state.
There is a Chucao Tapaculo there [laughter].
Today we project the Route of the Parks of Patagonia to be the most important.. No, I think that the most important is not the correct word. We want to project it as one of the best examples of travel as a consequence of conservation, basically. So we want this area to become a great destination for conservation, adventure travel, but always [having] a positive impact, involving the local communities, and to also have certain parameters to manage it. Manage the tourism industry so that tourists will visit the place in a good way. You know? Keeping in mind that national parks are first areas of conservation. And then, as a consequence of that, we can travel — Not, uh, the other side.
National parks are not made for travel. They’re made for conservation. But we can do good travel in the national parks and project an economy based on sustainable travel.
This idea—that conservation comes first, with tourism following naturally from protected wilderness—flips the traditional development model on its head. The Route of Parks of Patagonia wasn’t created as a tourist destination that happens to protect some nature. Instead, it emerged from one of the most ambitious conservation projects in history.
The Tompkins Vision
It started with Douglas and Kristine Tompkins came to Chile in the early 1990s. Doug, who founded The North Face and Esprit, and Kris, the former CEO of Patagonia, Inc., had a revolutionary idea — what if we could protect entire ecosystems, not just isolated patches? They saw an opportunity to protect these ecosystems before they were lost to development. Using their business success, the Tompkins began purchasing vast tracts of land for conservation through their foundation, now known as Rewilding Chile, which was initially controversial. Imagine foreign conservationists acquiring massive areas of your country—it raised understandable concerns.
But here’s where the story takes its most fascinating turn. Instead of keeping these lands private, the Tompkins formed a partnership with the Chilean government to create something unprecedented: they donated their lands back to Chile under one condition—that they would become national parks, protected for generations to come. This visionary act laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the Route of Parks of Patagonia.
From Vision to Reality
The path to creating the Route of Parks of Patagonia began gradually. The creation of Corcovado National Park in 2005 and Yendegaia in 2013 laid the groundwork. Then in 2014, the foundation formally presented the concept to the Chilean government to address concerns that conservation would remove land from productive use and hamper economic development.
As Doug Tompkins publicly stated when launching the vision at a 2015 summit, conservation isn’t an expense—it’s an investment. The Route of Parks of Patagonia represents a comprehensive development strategy for Chilean Patagonia based on conservation, positioning national parks as engines for local economies.
The vision culminated in what has been called the largest land donation from a private entity to a country in history. In 2017, Tompkins Conservation and the Chilean government signed an unprecedented agreement where the foundation would donate nearly a million acres of private land. In exchange, the government would incorporate public lands and reclassify national reserves to create five new national parks and expand three others.
In January 2018, this dream became reality when Kris Tompkins and the Chilean government signed the final decrees. The Tompkins Foundation donated their private lands to Chile, and the government contributed an additional 2.4 million acres of public lands while reclassifying 6.5 million acres of reserves as national parks. Combined with existing protected areas, they created something extraordinary—a continuous corridor of protected wilderness spanning one-third of Chile.
Global Significance
As Rafa emphasized to me, the Route transcends traditional wilderness protection by actively engaging the 60 local communities along the route. The Route of Parks of Patagonia moves beyond mere landscape preservation to pioneer a revolutionary conservation approach where ecological health and community prosperity develop hand in hand.
What many people don’t realize is the global significance of this conservation corridor. After the Amazon Basin, it contains one of the highest rates of carbon storage in South America. According to recent studies, the 28 million acres protected by the Route of Parks of Patagonia store an astonishing 6.6 billion metric tons of carbon—that’s almost three times more carbon per hectare than the forests of the Amazon. With peatbogs making up nearly 20% of the route’s surface and storing ten times more carbon than any other ecosystem, this isn’t just a scenic drive—it’s a crucial climate solution that benefits the entire planet.
The ecological value extends beyond carbon storage. The Route encompasses wetlands, ice fields, and the most extensive fjord system on the planet. Its coastline, with its fjords, peninsulas, and over 3,000 islands, stretches more than 52,000 milesequivalent to twice the circumference of Earth. The North and South ice fields within the Route form the third-largest reserve of fresh water in the world.
In future episodes, we’ll explore a select collection of these parks in detail, meeting the people who protect them and discovering what makes each one unique. But for now, just imagine what it means to have the foresight to protect landscapes on this scale—not just for wildlife, but for all of us. As the park’s visionaries put it, the Route of Parks of Patagonia shows how reconnecting with nature and developing models that work in harmony with biodiversity can promote healthy, vibrant environments for all communities of life on Earth.
Invitation to Adventure
The story of Patagonia unfolds as a remarkable transformation—from the ancient geological drama of the rising Andes, through millennia of indigenous stewardship, to today’s groundbreaking Route of Parks of Patagonia. Beyond its captivating history and breathtaking vistas lies something even more extraordinary: a massive conservation corridor that fundamentally reshapes our understanding of what becomes possible when we envision conservation at an ecosystem scale.
Standing here in Torres del Paine, watching the last rays of sun paint those granite towers pink – I feel a profound optimism about conservation’s future. These protected lands represent far more than scenic viewpoints or postcard imagery—they safeguard complete living systems where every element remains connected, from the tiny Darwin’s frog hiding in forest undergrowth to the majestic Andean condor soaring overhead on ten-foot wingspans.
Speaking of wild creatures… in our next episode, we’re diving deep into one of Patagonia’s most fascinating stories. Join me as we hike through windswept valleys and hidden forests of Torres del Paine National Park, searching for signs of South America’s apex predator – the puma. We’ll meet Nicolás Lagos, a remarkable conservationist who’s spent his career studying these mysterious cats, and discover how protecting pumas creates a ripple effect that helps preserve entire ecosystems.
Until then, I’m Brooke Mitchell and this is Rewildology. See you on the puma trail.
Join Project Patagonia
Before I go, I want to invite you to become part of something bigger than just this podcast. This series is actually one pillar of a larger initiative called Rewildology’s Project Patagonia – where conservation truly meets adventure.
Project Patagonia is built on three key elements: Listen, Experience, and Protect.
You’re already participating in the first pillar by listening to this podcast series. Over the next eight episodes, we’ll journey together through the remarkable Route of Parks of Patagonia, uncovering stories of conservation challenges and triumphs.
But if you’re inspired to go deeper, you can join us in the field for the second pillar – Experience. In April 2026, I’ll be leading a small group of just ten people on an unforgettable expedition to track pumas and explore the majestic mountains of Torres del Paine National Park. This intimate adventure includes expert-led puma tracking, meetings with conservation researchers, hiking through breathtaking landscapes, and even kayaking to the magnificent Grey Glacier. You’ll literally follow in the footsteps of the stories you’re hearing in this podcast.
The third pillar – Protect – is where your passion can translate into direct conservation impact. Through our partnership with Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, your support helps fund crucial work to protect pumas and their habitats throughout Patagonia. Your donations help bridge divides between fragmented habitats, develop solutions for human-wildlife conflict, implement wildlife corridors, and support cutting-edge research.
Whether you choose to listen to this series, join our expedition, make a donation, or all three – you become part of a community dedicated to preserving one of Earth’s most spectacular regions.
To learn more about Project Patagonia and how you can get involved, visit rewildology.com/projectpatagonia. Together, we can ensure that the Route of Parks of Patagonia continues to thrive for generations to come.
