As a child growing up in Chile’s Cochamó Valley, where broad rivers cut through Patagonian rainforests and fjords lie between the towering Andean Mountains, Tatiana Sandoval saw firsthand the inextricable link between people and nature.
“We worked in the fields gathering firewood, planting vegetables, cooking with what we produced,” says Sandoval. “I learned from my parents and grandparents to respect the land, to take care of the animals. This place not only surrounds us, it is part of our daily life and our identity.”
Today, Sandoval is the community engagement manager with Puelo Patagonia, a Chilean nonprofit leading a radical collaboration to protect Fundo Puchegüín, nearly 133,000 hectares (328,000 acres) of threatened lands and waters in the Cochamó Valley that developers have eyed for years.
The coalition calls itself Conserva Puchegüín. Its diverse members—Puelo Patagonia, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Freyja Foundation, Patagonia, Inc. and Wyss Foundation—all come with unique knowledge, experiences and skill sets. But they have joined forces with each other, and with the community of Cochamó, behind the single goal of keeping this landscape strong and productive for both people and nature.
“This is more than a conservation project,” says Andres Diez, executive director of Puelo Patagonia. “It’s a global example for how traditional land uses can be made compatible with the conservation of nature, involving the local community in every step.”
For Sandoval, it is also personal.
“These lands give us clean water, food, tranquility and a sense of belonging,” she says. “If they are not protected, we could lose not only the ecosystems, but also our way of life. The destruction of these lands and waters could change everything forever.”
The word “Cochamó” comes from the Indigenous Mapudungun language meaning “where the waters meet.” Indeed, the valley was carved millions of years ago by glaciers that, today, continue to feed the rivers, streams, waterfalls, lakes and wetlands of Fundo Puchegüín.
Dolphins, sea lions and pelicans can be found in nearby fjords. The rocky rivers teem with fish.
“The area’s vast water resources are not only essential for wildlife, but also support key economic activities for local communities, such as fishing and tourism,” says Mercedes Ibáñez, who leads TNC’s conservation efforts in the Patagonia region, which spans both Chile and Argentina.
While the lands of Fundo Puchegüín currently have no legal protected status, the Puelo River was just officially designated as a water reserve in October 2025. Surrounded by more than 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres) of Chilean and Argentinian parks, reserves and nature sanctuaries, the area provides an essential corridor for species moving across the continent.
Numerous endangered and endemic species rely on Fundo Puchegüín for survival. The monito del monte – a tiny marsupial endemic to the rainforests of Patagonia – lives in old-growth trees, weaving tiny spherical nests from leaves and moss. The rare Darwin’s frog, named after Charles Darwin, who documented the species nearly 200 years ago during his voyage to Chile on the HMS Beagle, thrives near streams along damp forest floors. Huemul deer, pictured in Chile’s national coat of arms, forage in the high Andean mountains. Fundo Puchegüín is also home to 10% of the world’s endangered alerce trees, which can grow more than 200 feet tall and live to be thousands of years old.
“Being located in Patagonia, one of the most pristine and least disturbed areas in the world, Fundo Puchegüín is home to diverse species of flora and fauna that depend on its unique ecosystems,” says Ibáñez.
These lands give us clean water, food, tranquility and a sense of belonging. If they are not protected, we could lose not only the ecosystems, but also our way of life.
The area’s diverse and interconnected ecosystems also play a critical role in the fight against climate change.
“The forests, wetlands and peatlands of this region not only capture and store large amounts of carbon, but they also act as a climate refuge, providing habitat for species that face climate impacts elsewhere,” says Ibáñez.
Along with its environmental importance, Fundo Puchegüín is home to people who have lived on the land for generations.
“One of the things that make this place so special is the culture and the way of life of the people who live here,” says Diez of Puelo Patagonia. “They are families of settlers who arrived more than 100 years ago and who maintain the traditions and lifestyles from that time.”
“I liked the countryside. I liked working, riding horses. I get up at 6 in the morning, drink lots of mate, and go out to let the sheep out to graze. I feed the dogs, go out to check on the boats, look for fodder to feed the horses, and I'm building a greenhouse for a vegetable garden. There's work to be done—look at my hands.”
Máximo Soto (Maqui), Community Member
“I feel great joy when tourists ask me questions, and we talk, and I tell them about my life, and we start long conversations. I feel happy, happy to share with people….I like country life: getting up early, being outside, running here and there, staying healthy….We take care of nature.”
Luisa Valderas, Community Member
Maqui Soto and Luisa Valderas live in Lago Vidal Gormaz, a small town in the Cochamó district, located in the middle of the mountains, a day's walk from the Argentine border. Due to the remoteness and difficulty of access, they grow their own vegetables and generally obtain flour, rice and oil from the neighboring countryside. For them, tourism is a source of income and also a great joy to be able to meet people from different parts of Chile and the world.
Get our latest research and insights about climate & biodiversity challenges, every month.
Local families sustain themselves through small-scale farming and ranching. There are no roads in Fundo Puchegüín, and the people living in the mountains generate their own electricity through renewable energy. Reaching some of the local homesteads requires hiking for hours through rugged forests. And the community of Cochamó has fought for years to keep their lands, waters and way of life safe from outside development.
Puelo Patagonia was founded to block the construction of a proposed hydroelectric project that would have caused irreparable harm to the Puelo River. Through legal actions, international support and persistent community pressure, the project was stopped.
And as the Cochamó Valley and Fundo Puchegüín became known around the world as a rock-climber’s paradise—with granite rock faces stretching up to 1,400 meters high—Puelo Patagonia and community members took a proactive approach to responsibly manage the influx of tourists. They implemented reservation systems and collaborated with private companies to mitigate the impact of mass tourism on the land.
And in 2022, when a wealthy businessman who had spent decades buying land across Fundo Puchegüín decided to sell the entire property to the highest bidder, Puelo Patagonia again went into action, joining forces with the local community to find a way to ensure the lands and waters would remain healthy for future generations.
“Before Puchegüín was officially put up for sale, we had already identified this and other properties as places with enormous conservation potential, both for their environmental and cultural value,” says Diez of Puelo Patagonia. “What we never imagined was that years after that first survey, the largest of those properties would end up being auctioned in New York.”
“We knew what Puchegüín meant to the inhabitants of the community,” adds Diez, “and we also recognized its global significance. To address the threats, the best option was to buy it, and that led us to seek out experienced allies."
Puelo Patagonia realized the scale of what it would take to effectively protect the vast landscape and sought alliances to bring more resources and capacity to the project. TNC, Freyja Foundation, Patagonia, Inc., and the Wyss Foundation all signed up to launch a radical collaboration working at the local, national and global levels to raise the funds needed to purchase the property, develop conservation strategies for the lands and waters, and create sustainable financing that will ensure durable protection.
“Knowing the urgency of climate change and the biodiversity crisis, Puchegüín is an example of how we can pick up the pace through this type of collaborative work,” says Juan Jose Donoso, director of TNC in Chile. “With each partner contributing its expertise, it allows us to achieve a greater and faster impact than any of us could have achieved on our own.”
Conserva Puchegüín
A bold collaboration is working to protect a vast stretch of lands and waters in the Cochamó Valley of Chilean Patagonia.
For TNC, that means contributing its 74 years of experience in developing conservation science, launching innovative financial mechanisms, and protecting millions of hectares of land, water and ocean around the world. TNC is also sharing lessons from its 22 years of managing the Valdivian Coastal Reserve, a 50,000-hectare area of ancient temperate rainforest along Chile’s southern coast, where it is partnering with local and Indigenous communities to support traditional land uses and sustainable economies.
For Fundo Puchegüín, TNC is also pulling in the expertise of its staff located around the world, from freshwater scientists and community engagement specialists to GIS and real estate experts.
But Donoso says the protection of Fundo Puchegüíin depends first and foremost on those who have long worked to safeguard this place.
“They have been taking care of this place for years,” says Donoso. “They are the ones who saw the opportunity to buy the land and who sought the collaboration. The community is at the center of this conservation project.”
TNC and Puelo Patagonia are holding ongoing workshops with farmers, tour guides and other community members in and around Fundo Puchegüín to understand their priorities and incorporate them into conservation strategies. The organizations are also actively working to ensure the local community can look to them as trusted partners.
“We are a community that has often experienced decisions imposed from the outside, without our opinions being listened to or valued,” says Sandoval of Puelo Patagonia. “It has been a challenge to get everyone to understand that conservation does not exclude but can include and strengthen the community.”
Trust and understanding are being built through months of listening sessions and planning workshops where community members are seeing their vision for the future become a reality.
The partners are co-creating conservation plans that will give protected national park status to at least 80% of Fundo Puchegüín where there are primary forests, habitat for endangered species and other sensitive natural areas. The remaining up to 20% will be designated as multi-use conservation areas where local community members will continue to earn livelihoods from traditional activities such as farming and ranching, and sustainable tourism will be developed to help them earn extra income.
“The fact that neighbors can generate income through nature tourism not only improves their quality of life but also allows people to remain on their lands without having to migrate to the cities in search of opportunities,” Sandoval says. “This is especially important for young people, who are often forced to leave due to a lack of options in the area. Well-planned conservation can offer a way for them to stay, grow and contribute.”
With each partner contributing its expertise, it allows us to achieve a greater and faster impact than any of us could have achieved on our own.
The conservation partners hope their work together will not just bring benefits to Fundo Puchegüín but also will serve as a model of what can be achieved through radical collaboration.
“It has allowed different organizations and people to come together, build a joint vision, and reach a very high impact,” says Donoso of TNC. “I hope our work in Puchegüín can inspire and motivate conservation across Chile and around the world.”
Sandoval says the collaboration demonstrates that everyone has a role to play in protecting special places like Fundo Puchegüín—from global businesses and nonprofits to local residents.
“People contribute from their experience, from the knowledge they have cultivated living here all their lives,” says Sandoval. “I remember a meeting where an elderly lady said, ‘I have no studies, but this place has taught me everything I know.’ That kind of wisdom is what is most valuable in this process.”
More stories from the world of fresh water conservation.
