MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Restoration program for Torres del Paine

A restoration program for the 14,000 hectares of Torres del Paine National Park consumed by a fire that has been raging for over a week was trusted to the Chilean Forestry Corporation, reported Chilean acting Agriculture Minister Arturo Barrera.

The plan should be ready in 45 days and the first decisions will be applied next spring with national, regional and international funds. These actions contemplate soil protection, re-planting the original species and transplanting juveniles from other areas.

"The different steps in the program involved high costs, a new hectare of forest costs an estimated 1,800 US dollars. This is why we will appeal to national, regional and overseas funding", indicated Mr. Barrera.

The fire in Chilean Patagonia's main park and wildlife attraction began accidentally last week and has been raging for over a eight days in spite of the 800 firefighters, servicemen, volunteers and a contingent of a hundred forest fire fighters from neighboring Rio Gallegos, Rio Turbio and Calafate in Argentina.

Helicopters from the Chilean Air Force and Navy, Army ground logistics and heavy equipment loaned from the Public Works departments of neighboring towns are also involved in the battle against the blaze.

At its peak the blaze covered a perimeter estimated in a hundred kilometres with the weather playing a key role. Strong erratic winds helped the blaze advance and it was not until some rainfall that prospects of containing the disaster began encouraging.

Of the 14,000 hectares, 3,000 are autochthonous pristine forest going back several centuries, "and recovery will be extremely slow, (over ten years) and demanding because of the harsh climatic conditions in the area", admitted Mr. Barrera.

However Mr. Barrera was adamant as to his Ministry's commitment, "the government has made all resources available to combat the blaze; we will spend whatever is needed to stop it from advancing, Torres del Paine is a humanity' heritage".

The area under fire or destroyed by the flames is equivalent to 7% of the total area of the Park, (242,000) so activity in other areas has resumed with the arrival of new tourists.