Melimoyu National Park

| Chile |

Area: 258,222 acres (104,499 hectares)
Estimated Carbon Storage: 74.5 million metric tonnes

Dominated by the imposing Melimoyu Volcano, Melimoyu National Park sits astride a maze of channels and fjords dotted with islands. Dozens of rivers flow from the area’s glaciers, bringing organic material from the forests and bogs and giving life to an aquatic ecosystem home to abundant wildlife. Blue whales populate the Corcovado Gulf, where an estimated 10 percent of the world’s population of cetaceans migrate to feed on krill during the Southern Hemisphere summer. Melimoyu is the nexus point between the southern edge of Chile’s temperate rainforests and the far north of the Patagonian subantarctic forest. Endangered species such as the pudú (a miniature deer) and Darwin’s frog inhabit the forest.

Park History

Through the Pumalín Foundation and the Conservation Land Trust, Douglas and Kristine Tompkins acquired 14,169 acres during the years 1999–2005. The 2017 protocol between Tompkins Conservation and the Chilean state agreed to combine this donated acreage with fiscal land to create the new national park.