The search for strategies and tools to improve protected area management in the Chilean Patagonia –helping them meet their stated conservation goal– led us to support the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas system. This tool is an opportunity for national protected areas –regardless of their governance scheme– to move forward towards effective management and to deliver successful biodiversity conservation outcomes based on a standard that integrates a cutting edge vision of PA development and management.
Hence, in 2020, jointly with the Chilean Forestry Service (CONAF) and The Pew Charitable Trusts, we became an implementing party of the Green List in Chile, providing technical and financial support for the establishment of this system in the country.
In year 2012, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) began to develop its certification program called Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, a tool to support national governments and stakeholders in meeting global biodiversity conservation targets by improving their protected areas’ management. Hence, the Green List is a certification program that provides a certificate to protected areas that achieve successful management, determined by the compliance of a standard with indicators developed and approved by IUCN members. The benefits of this tool eventually translate into the conservation of nature and its multiple ecological, socioeconomic, cultural, and spiritual values.
At the heart of the IUCN Green List is a Sustainability Standard that provides a global benchmark to assess social, environmental, and/or economic factors in a protected area. This international –but locally applied– standard is made up of four components broken down into 17 criteria.
In turn, these criteria give rise to 50 indicators, making it in one of the most demanding standards at the international level.
While there is an international Green List standard, each country can adapt it to its own case and generate a national standard, with own indicators and verifiers that are validated by the IUCN. This work is led by a panel called the Expert Assessment Group for the Green List (EAGL), the members of which are elected by the IUCN. The national standard is then validated by an external assurance agency called Accreditation Services International (ASI).
A protected area willing achieve a Green List status must go through three phases:
Application Phase: An online registration is made at the IUCN site; five basic indicators should be met and a PANORAMA Solution published.
Candidate Phase: Proving the compliance of 50 indicators with documents and field visits. This evaluation is in charge of the EAGL.
Green List Phase: Achieved once the area’s application has been admitted by the global level IUCN Green List committee.
The sites with a IUCN Green List status have been certified in acknowledgement of their effective management and fair governance, with positive long-term benefits for people and nature. Every five years, these sites are reassessed to verify the compliance of the criteria defined by the IUCN Green List standard.
At present, 61 protected areas in 57 countries have an IUCN Green List status.
The first specific steps to move forward in the implementation of the Green List in Chile took place in 2020.
Carretera Austral, Cerro Castillo
The process to establish the Green List system in Chile began in 2020, when CONAF opened an internal self-evaluation exercise of 24 protected areas under the international Green List Standard. The goal was to find out their status facing this tool’s requirements, and identify the main gaps that needed to be bridged in order to apply and achieve an IUCN Green List status.
That same year, the group of Green List implementing partners was consolidated in Chile. This team provides technical and financial assistance to the adaptation process and later implementation of the standard. They are, therefore, key players in the development of the Green List installation process in each country. In the case of Chile, these partners are the Chilean Forestry Service (CONAF), The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Austral Patagonia Program at Universidad Austral de Chile.
Two of the 24 areas evaluated by CONAF shared the top ranking and, by the end of 2021, they applied as IUCN Green List candidates: The Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park and the Cerro Castillo National Park. To continue with the evaluation, however, Chile needed a national Green List standard adapted to the country’s situation.
June – CONAF officially announced to IUCN its will to apply the Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park and Cerro Castillo National Park to the Green List certification process.
August – The IUCN opened the call to establish the EAGL Chile group of experts, commissioned with the task of defining the national Green List Chile Standard.
August – The first Green List training session took place for CONAF’s main headquarters and the regional offices in Los Lagos and Aysén.
October – December– Six workshops for both candidate National Parks (NPs) were organized and implemented. Together with the parks’ administrators, the standard’s components (governance, design and planning, and effective management and results).
November – An improvement plan was prepared for both NPs, which was revised and validated during the field visit.
December – Both parks officially applied as candidates to the Green List trough the IUCN platform.
May – A IUCN South delegation, led by the Regional Director for South America, Gabriel Quijandría, visited Chile to see first-hand the management status of the two Green List candidates. During their stay in Coyhaique, IUCN South and Universidad Austral de Chile (UACh) signed a cooperation agreement by means of which they committed to strengthen their joint work focused on improving the conservation of the Protected Wilderness Areas in the Chilean Patagonia. In addition, other activities took place during the visit with national (including the Minister of the Environment, CONAF’s Executive Director), regional (National Property and Environmental Regional Secretaries), and local (mayors) decision makers, as well as with other key stakeholders.
August – The IUCN announces the selection of the nine experts who will make up the EAGL Chile panel. These professionals have broad experience working with communities and with marine, terrestrial, and private PAs.
October – Beginning of the general revision of the Green List international standard and the customization of verifiers according to the country’s reality.
November – The verifying agency of the Green List Program, ASI, begins the revision of the construction process of the EAGL Internal Regulations and of the work conducted by this panel.
As of year 2023, the EAGL Group presented its Green List National Standard proposal for Chile, which was approved by the verifying agency ASI and by the IUCN.
As from this milestone, Chile officially entered the Green List Program as a participating country. Its protected areas, either public or private, can now apply for certification under this tool, in acknowledgement to its good management, effective biodiversity conservation, and benefits to communities.
The Expert Assessment Group for the Green List (EAGL) in Chile is made up by nine professionals in several disciplines who work on an independent basis. Officially, the group was established in August 2022 and since then, it voluntarily committed its time and expertise during a seven year period –ad honorem– to the Green List implementation process in our country. Each member is an expert in her/his research areas, including environmental, marine, and biological sciences; regional development; governance and participation; sustainable planning and management of protected natural sites; and laws, geography, conservation, and ecology.
Lorena Arce, Commercial Engineer and MSc. in Regional Development Sciences, Planning and Management
Melissa Gutiérrez, Ecotourism Administrator, MSc. in Sustainable Management of Travel Destinations
Irina Montenegro, Biologist and MSc. in Natural Resource Management
Constanza Pinochet, Biologist and MSc. in Biological Sciences
Fernando Aizman, Forest Engineer and MSc. in Protected Natural Sites
Alberto Fuentes, Marine Biologist and MSc. in Environmental Sciences
Rodrigo Guijón, Attorney and Geographer
Alexis Segovia, Geographer and MSc. in Wilderness Areas and Nature Conservation
Eduardo Silva, Veterinarian and Dr. in Interdisciplinary Ecology
