MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Torres del Paine Park infrastructure criticized

The Tourism Chamber of the province of Ultima Esperanza sent a letter to the Chilean Congress questioning the Forestry Corporation's role during last February month long forest fire in Torres del Paine Park.

The letter was signed by the president and vice president of the Chamber and addressed to the Extreme Zones and Tourism Committees of the Chilean Lower House which are currently investigating how government institutions responsible for acting when this kind of incidents effectively reacted.

The committees are also monitoring plans for the recovery of the Torres del Paine Park.

In the letter the tourism chamber expresses concern about the "scarce commitment and responsibility displayed by the Forestry Corporation in protecting our natural resources, a double responsibility since Torres del Paine is considered a World Biosphere Reserve".

"Puerto Natales (next to Torres del Paine) does not have the infrastructure a regional tourism centre requires, since the local airstrip (Airdrome Teniente Julio Gallardo) has no security systems or fire trucks or even telephones".

Further more they point out that a regional tourism development plan to co-ordinate all different fields of action is missing, emphasizing that "environment protection must be a priority over depredating expansion projects".

The letter claims the lack of vision in making Puerto Natales the main supplier of services both to the national parks and surrounding areas and warns about the unregulated occupation of land with intruders "threatening all the good ecosystem reasons".