Contributors: Ricardo Lagos, Douglas Tompkins, Juan Emilio Cheyre, Carlos Cuevas, Tom Butler and Antonio Vizcaíno; photography by Antonio Vizcaíno.

Corcovado National Park, Chiles sixth largest, was formally designated by President Lagos in January 2005. This grand new wilderness park exists largely because of his determination. Corcovado covers approximately 726,000 acres and contains some eighty-two lakes, many ringed with ancient forests where pumas haunt the shadows. The brackish estuaries where the Corcovado and Tic Toc rivers spill into the Bay of Corcovado are exceptional wildlife habitat. Immense colonies of shorebirds coat the beaches. Penguins scamper about the rocks. Marine mammals, including seals and sea lions, thrive in the bay, which was discovered to be a crucial nursery area for blue whales, Earths largest animals. The bay, once the lair of pirates, is now proposed to become Chiles first marine sanctuary, assuring a continuity of protection for wildlife from ocean bottom to mountain peaks.

In Corcovado National Park, renowned landscape photographer Antonio Vizcaíno captures the beauty and diversity of a magical setting almost untouched by modern humans. Designated in 2005 by President Ricardo Lagos, the park was born of an innovative public-private collaboration spurred by the largest-ever donation of private land to Chiles system of protected areas.

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