Santiago Foothills: Mountain Ecosystem Conservation

The goal of the project is to protect, conserve, and restore in-situ a 12,900 ha area located in proximity to Santiago consisting of a representative example of a Mediterranean-mountainous ecosystem (i.e., the Santiago Foothills) and support the continued functioning of the ecosystem’s ecological processes on which much of the city depends. The specific objectives of the proposed project are to: (i) improve the legal, institutional, and political groundwork required to create a conservation area in the Santiago Foothills; (ii) develop conservation activities in the proposed conservation area; (iii) promote among the urban population an increased environmental awareness of the significance of this ecosystem, as a way to ensure the sustainability of conservation efforts; and (iv) disseminate information on, and promote the concept of, mainstreaming mountainous ecosystems conservation efforts into urban planning processes.