Blog 8: A subject you enjoyed studying this semester

 

✨Hi, I hope all is well with you✨   

Management of protected wild areas!!! ☁☁

 I really like everything about the environment, this subject is one of my favorites. I also really like everything about environmental management. 

I took a similar course before, called Integrated coastal zone management (Gestion Integrada de Zonas Costeras, GIZC) and it was a wonderful experience as well. 

First, we learned all the basics about definitions and concepts, for example: we were able to understand what protected areas are and why it should be protected, the importance of biodiversity, to conserve, to protect, to prevent and to restore if possible. 

Then we learned about the history of Protected Areas in Chile for almost 2 centuries, the bases on which they were founded and the different approaches (that was very hard for me). We have seen international cases, but above all national cases of importance for national and global biodiversity. During this period we had to read several texts, in English and Spanish :) I really like that, because in this way we can broaden our knowledge and learn about other perspectives. 

Then the teacher explains us about many of the institutions, international treaties, articles of the current Chilean constitution, etc. that support the protection of protected areas. During this period we discussed a lot about particular cases, about examples in the application of learned concepts.

We learned that Chile may not be an important biodiversity case like the tropical regions, but it is important because of the many endemic and unique species found there. Also that in the central part of the country where there should be more protected areas around is where there are less and at the same time are the most threatened by interventions and urbanization… So there is a lot of work to do! C: 

Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park, the oldest park founded in 1926 in Chile and one of the most visited in the country. There you can find the waterfalls on the Rio Petrohué and Lago Todos los Santos.