Why Patagonia?

I have had to consider the question why work and fund conservation projects in South America and in particular Patagonia? I don’t think I knew exactly before we left last month. All I knew were from the pictures, the stories and our research that something big was there... We had to check it out... And it was there..

We do fund conservation work in the US at both major universities like Duke and Stanford, major environmental organizations like WCS and pro-fish organizations like Trout Unlimited. We are satisfied with these groups and their work. But there is a difference down in Patagonia and it is easy to see why. The US is the real leader in environmental stewardship on the planet. The state and federal agencies, fish and game departments, pro-fish NGOs, anti-fishing NGOs plus all the save the planet groups are fully engaged, the barganning tables crowded with every group wanting and getting in most cases a chair and a voice. And it does work in most cases... Well at least everybody gets a seat at the table. Once could speculate for US environmental policies there is another table that is by invitation only. Thats another post...

Patagonia - 800,000 square kilometers of land with 0.8 inhabitants per square kilometer. Three words come to mind - Vast... Untouched... Unmanaged... There is so much opportunity to help the few aware organizations, land owners, university professors and environmental groups protect their land. Consider this: There is not governmental agency with either the mission statement of staff to conduct or enforce environmental rules. Private fisheries research has been conducted on the Rio Grande since 1990, catch records are complete, privately-funded research conducted by well known US university groups and results are in the public domain and on the web for all to view. Yet the first major meeting between research team, land owner and the TDF agency responsible for environmental issues was suppose to take place just last week. Go figure that. makes me think of my favorite question... who cares?

There are both natural and man-made challenges in Patagonia. Population growth has spawned a major demand for more cheap electricity and this has sparked a major dam-building effort in Chile and Patagonia. Wild rivers like the Baker and Futaleufu are under seige by major European power companies teamed up with local governments to build theese dams and flood the river ecosystems. It is worse that the TVA or Corp of Engineers in the US. These are foreign private corporations with no accountability beyond their lobbyst’s bribe budget.

The continued effort for wealth extraction from the rivers, lakes and sea have spawned the $2B/yr Chilean salmon industry with numerous harmful impacts on the ecosystem. The real impact of that has been reported by WWF (see report) in great detail. But there is a more suttle impact creeping into the ecosystem. Escapees from the salmon pens have started to stage their own spawning runs up both pacific and Atlantic rivers. We heard from guides in Cholila, Chubut that salmon started showing up in the Corcovado River starting a few years ago. So what happens to the resident fishery going forward? What should be done if anything? What will be the effect of a major salmon spawning run in a few years? Who owns the salmon? Who can harvest them? They have already started farming rainbow trout on Lago Lemay right outside Bariloche - there are few regulations, no environmental impact assessment and a host of issues about them.

Meetings were held with several university professors at Universidad Nacional del Comahue in Bariloche, Rio Negro. Many of the faculty trained in the US and have active scientific programs, numerous graduate students and publish in international journals about their work in Patagonia. Unfortunately without a government agency or mission on fisheres conservation, there is no budget to fund any research. Research projects are based on what costs the least amount of funds rather than what is a pressing provincial issue.

We had lunch with Professor Pablo Vigliano in Bariloche to talk about the state of conservation in Patagonia. He gave us the summary from an soon to be published research publication that it is time for Patagonia to make some important decisions about how it manages its natural resources yet there is really no scientific data available on which to base any decisionmaking - no baselines, no informed provincial decision makers but rather a rapid period of economic development, subdivisions and resort properties in the area.

While MVF is concerned about conservation of river and ocean ecosystems on the planet not just in our back yard in Jackson Hole, the Chesapeake Bay or Bahamas. Following our venture capital roots to seek out projects with a significant return on investment of conservation progress, Patagonia is a prime place for us to work. We hope to have a plan in place in the next several months to prepare for the 2009 Argentina summer. That is January-April, 2009. More later as always.