Chiloé's Peat Bogs Win Sanctuary Status

Chile holds more than 2.8 million hectares of peatland, and on the archipelago of Chiloé the bogs are the reason rural households have water at all: sphagnum moss, known locally as pompón, holds many times its weight in rain and releases it slowly through the dry months. Commercial extraction of that moss for horticultural export, plus drainage for grazing and forestry plantations, has been steadily stripping it out. CECPAN, a Chiloé nonprofit founded in 2006 by local professionals, has spent years building the case for legal protection with landowners and the Ministry of the Environment. In April 2021 Chile's Council of Ministers for Sustainability approved three new nature sanctuaries forming the Red de Turberas de Chiloé, covering about 278 hectares including the 243-hectare Turberas de Púlpito in Chonchi, adding to the 3,000-hectare Humedales de la Cuenca de Chepu sanctuary declared in 2019, which CECPAN helps administer.