“The urgency and challenge is to redesign our communities in a bioregional context that allows us to mitigate the root causes and adapt to climate change.”
New Landscape declaration – Landscape architecture foundation
Located in the province of San Antonio, in the Valparaíso Region, the sanctuary covers approximately 60 hectares dedicated to biodiversity conservation, environmental education, and the preservation of the socio-ecological heritage of the Maipo River mouth. It serves as a meeting point between the municipalities of Santo Domingo and San Antonio.
This ecosystem is one of the most important coastal wetlands in central Chile in terms of biodiversity. It is home to more than 180 bird species, 94% of which are endemic or native to the country, representing approximately 35% of the national birdlife. This makes it a key nesting, resting, feeding, and sheltering habitat for the birds that inhabit and frequent this area.
The Maipo River Wetland ecosystem is valued as a sanctuary of life. A territory with natural, social, and cultural heritage, it forms part of a shared territorial identity from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and, in turn, from the country’s central coastal zone.
This riverine and coastal urban wetland is also a meeting place for multiple communities that share the challenge of conservation and comprehensive sustainability of its functions.
Conservation and regeneration of the Maipo socioecosystem
After years of being a municipal branch dump and an irregular landfill, in 2002 the Municipality of Santo Domingo – through a pioneering and visionary municipal decree – granted protection to part of this place by creating the “Nature Park of the South Bank of the Mouth of the Maipo River”, which constituted a first milestone to survey, recover and conserve this place and its biodiversity.
Since 2014, the Cosmos Foundation has joined this project to support the management of the municipal park with appropriate conservation and regeneration criteria.
Their joint work led both institutions to sign a loan agreement in November 2018, allowing the Cosmos Foundation to take over the park’s management, always with the support of the municipality. Thus, in January 2019, the Cosmos Foundation and the Municipality of Santo Domingo requested the Ministry of the Environment to declare it a Nature Sanctuary.
Nature Sanctuary
The decree creating the Maipo River Wetland Nature Sanctuary established a surface area of approximately 60 hectares, comprising the entire municipal park and adding 20 hectares of the Maipo River as a National Public Use Property, encompassing territories in the municipalities of Santo Domingo and San Antonio, establishing it as an Intercommunal Sanctuary. It also assigned the Cosmos Foundation the responsibility of administering and managing the site. Therefore, it is the institution responsible—under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment through the Regional Ministerial Secretariat of the Valparaíso Region—for leading decision-making regarding the sanctuary and coordinating spaces for dialogue between various stakeholders from the public, private, and civil society sectors relevant to the area, in order to channel collaborative efforts toward achieving its objectives.
I understand that the well-being of the ecosystem depends on the relationship its inhabitants have with the territory, and on the benefits provided by participatory, relevant, and legitimate management. A sanctuary governance system was designed, involving public, private, and civil society actors, including academics/specialists, with the goal of jointly advancing research, education, conservation, tourism, and territorial planning.
“We have profound hope for the future as we begin to understand the true complexity and holistic nature of Earth’s systems, and we envision the integral role humanity plays in their stability and productivity.
Today we can create a new identity in society and be part of a constructive and regenerative system of nature.
New Landscape declaration – Landscape architecture foundation
Maipo River Wetland Park
Over the years of collaborative work between the Cosmos Foundation, the Municipality of Santo Domingo, and the communities associated with the ecosystem, the Río Maipo Wetland Park has become a national benchmark for management models and infrastructure for natural wetland parks.
The park covers more than 40 hectares, providing the community with a space for recreation and environmental education, and serving as a platform for the conservation of the wetland and its environmental services. The work has been organized around four main programs: environmental conservation, environmental education, community action, and infrastructure for sustainable use.
If you want to know more about the park, its schedules, activities, and programs, we invite you to visit the website humedalriomaipo.cl and follow us on our social networks .