Hornopirén National Park

| Chile |

Area: 170,986 acres (69,196 hectares)
Estimated Carbon Storage: 32.1 million metric tonnes

Hornopirén, which means “snow oven” in the Mapudungun language, is known for its rich biodiversity, high levels of endemic species, and ancient forests where some individual alerce trees are thousands of years old. The park lies within the Biosphere Reserve of temperate rainforests of the austral Andes. Located near the village of Hornopirén, at the start of the Carretera Austral, the park’s crowning jewel is its forest of endangered alerce trees. Mammals include the puma, kodkod (the smallest cat in the Americas), fox, and pudú (a miniature deer). Hornopirén National Park borders the Pacific Ocean’s Comau fjord, an ancestral territory for indigenous Chono people who hunted sea lions and collected shellfish and algae.

Park History

The park, created in 1988, was expanded as part of the 2017 protocol agreement with the government of Chile. Tompkins Conservation donated a 267-acre property and additional fiscal land was added to the protected area.