A simple definition of ecosystem services is the direct and indirect contribution of ecosystems to human well-being. But without a doubt, to secure the biological and ecological processes involved is much more complex than this simple definition. To evaluate the ecosystem services provided by wetlands from the perspectives of ecology, economics, culture, and livelihood allows local communities to understand and value those services. This process can also generate arguments to support conservation strategies that consider human populations that depend on these sites for their survival, thus making it possible to carry out the most informed decision-making process.
This is why Isadora Angarita-Martínez, Conservation Specialist with the WHSRN Executive Office, traveled to southern Chile to facilitate a series of workshops on the participatory assessment of ecosystem services in Maullín and Chiloé Island. The workshops were convened and organized by our local partner Fundación Conservación Marina (the Marine Conservation Foundation). The workshops were part of a larger initiative led by Manomet thanks to the support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Participants working in breakout groups during the workshop in Maullín. Photos: Diego Luna Quevedo.
The workshop series toured from the Curaco de Vélez and Quinchao wetlands on the eastern side of Chiloé Island, and the nearby wetlands of Maullín on the mainland. These areas are part of a mainland-island system critical for Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica) wintering on the Pacific coast of South America. The WHSRN Site Humedales Orientales de Chiloé host more than 90% of the Pacific population of this species, and the WHSRN Site at Maullín hosts at least 1%.
Left: A local fisherman rates ecosystem services according to priority to him, during the workshop in Maullín. Right: The birdwatching viewpoint at the Las Lajas wetlands, which make up part of the WHSRN Site Humedales de Maullín. Photos: Diego Luna Quevedo.
Simultaneously, the WHSRN Executive Office, Fundación Conservación Marina, and local municipalities have been working together to declare these sites as Nature Sanctuaries (an official protection designation in Chile), in the framework of Chile’s 2018-2022 Wetland Protection Plan. The Wetland Protection Plan is a government initiative that seeks to officially protect 40 wetlands by 2022, covering 250,000 hectares (~618,000 acres). Thanks to the framework of this national plan, another WHSRN Site in Chile has already achieved this official protection. In January 2019, in collaboration with the Centro Bahía Lomas and Santo Tomás University, the WHSRN Site Bahía Lomas, the most important wintering site in South America for the rufa subspecies of Red Knot (Calidris canutus), was declared a national Nature Sanctuary.
Mapping ecosystem services during the workshops in Llaniquihue (left) and Curaco de Vélez (right). Photos: Diego Luna Quevedo.
The Municipality of Maullín has been working with Fundación Conservación Marina and WHSRN to declare the Maullín Wetlands as another Nature Sanctuary. “This declaration will facilitate the protection of 9,000 hectares (22,240 acres), that are critical for migratory shorebirds, and for the sustainable development of our local community,” said Jorge Westermeier, the Mayor of Maullín.
A Rufous-chested Dotterel foraging in the important intertidal areas of the WHSRN Site Humedales de Maullín. Photo: Diego Luna Quevedo.
The results from the participatory ecosystem services assessment process at these sites will provide important input for informed decision making and conservation planning at the local level. Diego Luna Quevedo, Conservation Specialist who has been leading the WHSRN Executive Office’s conservation efforts in Chile for the past five years, explained that “we want to go beyond the traditional approach of management plans for conservation goals. Seeking declarations of Nature Sanctuary status will serve to protect the ecosystem services that these wetlands provide to sustain local communities.”
For more information, please contact Claudio Delgado, Executive Director of Fundación Conservación Marina in Chile: cdelgado@fcmarina.cl
Cover Photo: The natural landscape of the Las Lajas wetlands, part of the WHSRN Site Humedales de Maullín. Photo: Diego Luna Quevedo.
