MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Torres del Paine Park must double protected area to meet UNESCO latest criteria
Torres Del Paine National Park, in southern Chile’s Patagonia, is easily among the country’s most iconic natural attractions, hosting 170,000 tourists a year. Yet to maintain the park’s UNESCO classification as a biosphere reserve, Chile must greatly expand the protected areas to more than double the current boundaries. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesI hope the UNESCO criteria includes removing all the anti-personnel mines they planted all over the god damned place.
May 11th, 2011 - 09:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0This is not Ch/Ar frontier land, as far as I am aware.
May 11th, 2011 - 08:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I am more concerned that those living in the (new) Buffer Zone get sufficient inducements/compensations to move to the outer zone.
”In the province of Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) where Puerto Natales and the world famous Torres del Paine national park are located there are 13 minefields containing 4.200 anti tank mines.”
May 12th, 2011 - 06:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://en.mercopress.com/2011/04/22/chilean-army-clearing-antitank-and-antipersonnel-mine-fields-in-tierra-del-fuego
I'd be concerned about blowing myself to pieces.
Checked the maps. Route 9 gets you into the region, the Park and the the extension to the park are - as far as I can see from the maps - way up in the mountains and well away from Route 9.
May 12th, 2011 - 10:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0Clearance underway, but it's a pity the country felt it had to defend itself in this way in the first place. Was it ever at risk?
Yes Martin, for sure Torres del Paine is a “god damned place”, or mabye rather “argentine damned”?
May 12th, 2011 - 02:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So now we chileans are supposed to feel guilty to place defensive weapons on our land, to stop the argentine invasion? Is that your “logic” ?
In your position, I would rather be silent and feel sort of a shame than
present as the big moral “teacher”.
4# Geoff, yes... in 78 it was a matter of hours. There were even argentine military incursions into chilean territory same day they stopped the whole operation (which was called “Operacion Soberania”)
The whole invasion plan is a fact and the argentine junta never made the smallest effort to hide this intention, totally opposite. There was an argentine general of the army called Luciano Benjamín Menéndez back then,which a very emblematic sentence which described the argentine attitude towards Chile very good, I quote:
”If they (junta) let us attack the “chilotes” (despective argentinian word for chileans, though originally inhabitants of the island Chiloe), we'll hunt them till Easter Island, will cheer at new years eve in the presidential palace in Santiago, and then we'll go to piss champagne into the pacific“
«Si nos dejan atacar a los ”chilotes”, los corremos hasta la isla de Pascua, el brindis de fin de año lo haremos en el Palacio La Moneda y después iremos a mear el champagne en el Pacífico».
All well documented here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Soberan%C3%ADa
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