MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Czech donation for Torres del Paine

Czech Republic Deputy Foreign Secretary Jan Winkler reported that his government had donated 144,000 Euros to help with the infrastructure reconstruction and reforesting of Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia which was severely damaged by a forest fire last February.

Mr. Winkler made the announcement during a meeting with Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs Ignacio Walker in the framework of the recent III Democracies Ministerial Summit held in Santiago.

The fire started following an accident by Czech citizen and conservationist Jiri Smitak while camping in Torres del Paine last summer.

It took almost a month and several hundred fire fighters, servicemen and volunteers to contain the blaze which ended razing over 12,000 of the 242,000 hectares of the park, one of the main attractions of Chilean Patagonia.