Chile Gondwana GIS

Tierra del Fuego - The Land of Fire. The fires were the camp fires of the Fuegian Indians. In one version, Magellan saw smoke only and called it Tierra del Humo, the Land of Smoke, but Charles V said there was no smoke without fire and changed the name... The Fuegians are dead and all the fires snuffed out. Only the flares of oil rigs cast a pall over the night sky.
Bruce Chatwin, In Patagonia

We have been doing field work and using GIS for several years since the project's inception by Tracy Katelman of Ancient Forests International. In this time we have provided GIS mapping support for the International Gondwana Forest Sanctuary Project. This valuable resource has contributed to arguments against the Trillium/Savia Tierra del Fuego Forest Management Plan. Though the danger of the Trillium/Savia project going through at this time is small, recently they have indicated their plans to continue in the future. In addition to this project we are gearing up for an anti road campaign. This is a very hot topic down here. The problem is almost all the voices are in favor on new roads. New roads to help improve tourism including eco tourism. These poorly planned and costly road projects continue under other names too, including
ranching, forestry, salmon farming and national security. Under this new project we will be teaming with IDDEA (Iniciativa de Defensa Ecológica Austral or Southern Defense iniciative) to use Huemul (a rare chilean elk/deer) habitat to create an argument against the roads
and to raise money to study the Huemul.

Nelson Sanchez
is a Punta Arenas-based cartographer, and has researched and worked in a variety of circumstances on projects related to the Patagonia region.

He has participated in three cartography projects with the Antarctic Center of the University of Magallanes. In the first, he worked with the National Fund for Science and Technology (FONDECYT) reviewing the relation of glacial variation in Patagonia to climate change. This project involved digital maps and aerial photographs of glacial movement as well as use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS). In the second project, also for FONDECYT, he studied and mapped the establishment of vegetation populations in post-glacial conditions. He later
spent one month in the field with a physicist/remote sensing expert from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Using GPS, they ground truthed Glacier San Rafael in the Northern Ice Field, to mark the boundaries between snow and glacier that had been difficult to accurately determine from satellite images.

Nelson also worked with the Center for Energy Resources of the University of Magallanes on a project surveying and mapping boundaries of production lands for the Chilean Department of the Interior's Inventory of Agricultural Lands.

Because of his interest in mapping, over the course of two years, Nelson took approximately one month of introductory-level GIS courses at the Punta Arenas branch of the University of Chile in the Center for Special Studies. The courses included an introduction to ArcView and IDRISI software as well as using GPS with GIS technology.

Nelson's volunteer environmental work has included activism with local and national significance.

 

Bruce Willett/Me:
Currently a GIS consultant for the City of Punta Arenas, I have spent the last 2.5 years assisting the SIG Gondwana Project. My original interest in Conservation GIS developed after 4 years working in Oregon with GreenPeace and
then for WAC Corp. an aerial photography firm. GreenPeace developed my skills in environmental organizing and WAC in aerial photos and mapping. I have been using GIS since 1992 when I started my studies to earn an M.S. in Environmental Engineering at the State University of New York, Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF). At SUNY ESF I completed a thesis titled "Using GIS to Target Land for Conservation for the Finger Lakes Land Trust." At this time I was also working for the local Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council where I applied GIS for transportation planning including bicycle / pedestrian advocacy. Since then I have applied GIS to forestry issues on Navajo, Hopi and Mapuche Indian lands and toxic waste remediation on Coronado Island, San Diego.

In 1998 and 1999 I attended both the ESRI and SCGIS conferences. In 1998, while working with Diné CARE GIS, a Navajo Environmental organization advocating for the forests and uranium miners on Navajo lands. In 1999 I attended both SCGIS and ESRI on The IT Group ESRI maintenance package. During both encounters I made key contacts and learned a tremendous amount.

Here in Chile I have provided training and technical support for Fundacion Chol Chol, a Mapuche Indian foundation in Temuco, Chile. This project produced over 80 maps in one season to be submitted to the Chilean forest service in support tree planting efforts. After some technical help, many of the farmers directly participated in the project.

My work on these projects is a direct result of the contacts made at both the 1998 and 99 SCGIS and ESRI conferences. Contacts made that directly relate to this project are Tracy Katelman from Ancient Forests International, Nelson Sanchez from SIG Gondwana Project, Andres Moreira from the Chilean Museum of Natural History, Mike Beltz from The Ecology Center and of course the honorable Charles Convis.

After an initial commitment of three months I am still down here after 2 years. At that time I was working at The IT Group cleaning up toxic waste on North Island Navel Air Station, Coronado. I took a three month leave of absence to assist with the 1999/2000 field season and GIS. In June of 2000 my second leave of absence ran out. After more then two years I am still here. My main work as a City of Punta Arenas consultant helps to pay for my volunteer work with both environmental and humane society projects.

Sandro Espinosa:
A Civil Engineering student at Magellan's University and GIS technician with the City of Punta Arenas, Sandro is honing his GIS skills, scanning aerial photos, digitizing and correcting errors on tax parcel maps, vegetation data and roads. In my contract work for the City of Punta Arenas I have hired and served as his mentor. For more then the past two years he has served on the Gondwana GIS project. In November- Febuary trained with Rankin Holmes and Mike Beltze at he Ecology Center in Montana on a skill interchange.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Bedrich Magus
Professor Electrical Engineering Bedrich, a long time Punta Arenas environmental activist has provided leadership, technical computer support, key contacts and office space at the University of Magellanes. His long-time involvement with IDDEA has proved his commitment to the environment. "No one knows how the ecosystem works. The real problem is no one worries about this before they start cutting. It's like running in the dark," said Bedrich

 

 

The Gondwannic forests are found throughout the southernmost areas of the planet. In South America, Gondwannic forests straddle the Chilean and Argentinean sides of the Andes from the 37th Parallel south to Tierra del Fuego. This area is popularly called Patagonia. The region contains major Gondwannic genera and species. In Chile and Argentina the Nothofagus, or southern beech, genus is a principal Gondwannic representative. There are eight Nothofagus species found in Chile and Argentina including ruil (Nothofagus allessandri), roble (N. obliqua), rauli (N. alpina), lenga (N. pumilio), hualo (N. glauca), coigüe (N. dombeyi), Magellanic coigüe (N. betuloides), and ñirre (N. antartica). Gondwannic remnants are also found in Uruguay.

The great world demand for wood and the economic global atmosphere has made accessible the most isolated places on earth including Patagonia's Tierra del Fuego. This remote island located on the southern tip of South American is in peril of industrial forest development. This puts in danger, another large extension of old virgin forests of the Patagónia where the last pristine sub-antartic forests are located. The unknown genetic, natural and tourist values are incalculable. Furthermore, it has not been calculated how much forest has already been affected. The last National inventory of Native Forest gives very general data on the situation of the "Bosque Nativo" in Patagonia. Detailed land cover information will allow us to plan the sustainable use of the territory . Our proposal toward a sustainable development is limited to the fragile landscape of Tierra del Fuego but could expand in the near future.he increased emand for wood and the economic global atmosphere has made accessible the most isolated places on earth

Combining current and past Gondwana forest information presents a challenge assisted by geographical information system (GIS). We are planning a new field season of investigation in the heart of Gondwana, South America's Patagonian Tierra del Fuego. These are the forests most in danger of Trillium/Savia's Rio Condor Project which is changing as we write.

Objectives