Local Community Drives Conservation Efforts for ACMU Pitipalena-Añihué: Five-Year Management Plan Projected

Original article: Comunidad local impulsa conservación del ACMU Pitipalena – Añihué en Aysén: Proyectan Plan de Manejo para próximos 5 años

After months of collaborative efforts among local communities, public services, and support organizations, the Multi-Use Conservation Area (ACMU) Pitipalena-Añihué has completed workshop sessions aimed at updating its Management Plan. This stage has outlined a proposal to guide the management and protection of this valuable marine-coastal territory over the next five years.

This initiative was prioritized by the Regional Minister of Environment and the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service in Aysén, in conjunction with the community of Raúl Marín Balmaceda.

The process has been facilitated by the work of Fondo Naturaleza Chile, with funding from the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and technical and financial support from WWF Chile. This organization highlighted the progress of this initiative towards becoming the first updated Management Plan for a Conservation Area in Chile, under the new environmental framework.

Jesús Rodríguez Rivas, Regional Manager of Marine Protected Areas at the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Service, expressed significant appreciation for the participatory nature involved in the Management Plan review alongside various local actors, academics, and industry stakeholders. «This document will serve as a roadmap for achieving efficient management that balances the conservation of natural heritage with sustainable use of the area over the next five years,» he stated.

The proposal crafted includes key guidelines aimed at tackling threats to conservation within the area, strengthening monitoring and surveillance capabilities, improving financing and communication mechanisms, and consolidating tools to evaluate outcomes and adapt management to future challenges.

Rodrigo Parra, president of the AMP Pitipalena-Añihué Foundation, highlighted that «the proposal we have developed this time, compared to the first Management Plan, benefits from being crafted through a more conscious and empowered community, alongside a more appropriate new framework where the SBAP has integrated previous experiences from MMA and CONAF, with the tremendous support of Fondo Naturaleza Chile, which not only provides funding but has added its vision and participation to our work.»

«Together with WWF and other partners from science and conservation, and through a proven methodology, we facilitated consensus and built a shared strategy,» he added.

Eight Strategic Axes

The updated Management Plan proposal comprises eight strategies aimed at enhancing conservation and effective management of the area over the next five years. These address challenges such as reducing threats to biodiversity, strengthening monitoring and surveillance, communication, financing, and adaptive management of the territory.

It also seeks to advance towards a more inclusive and representative governance model, where the community of Raúl Marín Balmaceda continues to play an active role in local management of the ACMU.

María Elisa Arroyo, coordinator of Protected Areas at WWF Chile, emphasized that this process reflects the evolution of the protected area since the development of its first Management Plan.

«The review of this proposal incorporates lessons learned over the past years and projects them into a much more robust roadmap for area management, where we find more mature conditions based on local experiences marked by participation,» suggested Arroyo.

«Advances in areas such as monitoring, achievements concerning the puye fishery, and the introduction of a new institutional framework undoubtedly open up significant opportunities to strengthen governance in the area, consolidating a model that is more inclusive where the community of Raúl Marín Balmaceda can continue contributing its knowledge and territorial experience to conservation decision-making as part of the Local Management Council,» noted the WWF Chile representative.

«The history of ACMU Pitipalena-Añihué demonstrates that conservation is most effective when built from local knowledge, collaborative efforts, and a shared vision for the future,» she emphasized.

What Comes Next?

With the completion of this stage, the updated Management Plan proposal moves into the next phases of institutional review and validation.

«At Fondo Naturaleza Chile, we celebrate this milestone with the delivery of the proposal for the Management Plan of the protected marine area Pitipalena-Añihué because it represents the validation of an instrument that has been key to providing certainty, integrating open conservation standards into the actual management of areas, with budget allocation, zoning, and clear definitions to mobilize resources responsibly,» stated Eugenio Rengifo, Executive Director of Fondo Naturaleza Chile.

The Pitipalena-Añihué area is located in the Municipality of Cisnes, specifically from the Pitipalena fjord to Punta Guala in the north and Isla La Leona in Canal Refugio to the south, within the jurisdictional bounds of the Aysén Region.

The ACMU-MU Pitipalena-Añihué was established on February 18, 2014, through Supreme Decree No. 13 from the Ministry of Environment, which has priority objectives including conserving the environmental quality of riverine, estuarine, and marine ecological systems, promoting conservation within the area of influence to maintain landscape integrity, biodiversity, and biological productivity, as well as recovering marine resources for the sustainable use of the Raúl Marín Balmaceda community and enhancing opportunities for development compatible with land and coastal zone uses.

Learn more about this Conservation Area HERE (MMA website)