Popular destinations suffer from overtourism: Due to large flows of people, natural resources are depleted, animal habitats disappear, the lifestyle of the indigenous population is destroyed, prices rise, and income is distributed unevenly.
Tourism and social media cause wildlife suffering Tourism is killing the chimps
Norway outdoor tourism killing environment Tourism = water crisis
VI. If you, as homo turisticus consumeristicus, whether individuals or as a group, decided anyway to see the meagre remains of the chunk of ice that used to be a glacier in the not habilitated sector of the State protected area, and witness the tragedy of the destroyed land on the way, you may be made liable for :
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• Entering non-habilitated State-controlled sectors of protected areas;
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• Promoting this land for public use in public domain and thus putting a successful nature restoration project at risk;
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• Trespassing private land;
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• If with a tour operator or guide, liability for hiring an illegal service may be invoked.
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• The liability for leaving garbage, including bicycles and in private property, can be up to $ 200,000 (Law 20.879);
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• High wildfire risk, no fire management in the valley Leones. It is a crime to light a fire in any circumstance (Law No. 20,653);
Also:
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• You are not covered by travel and other insurances as you are trespassing private land with no formal authorisation;
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• There are no tourism lawyers in the region, unlike in other popular tourism destinations;
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• No medical or other help immediately accessible in case of accident;
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• Beware tourism bookings by WhatsApp or social media, often they are not declared to the authorities and difficult to prove in case of dispute;
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• Reporting contacts: denunciaseguro.cl, *4242 (safe reporting); forest fires: 130; police: 134; drugs: 135; consumers‘ rights SERNAC. Important, as insecurity is increasing in the region; Drug trafficking in national parks
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• Do not forget that this land is not abandoned and is under effective protection, you are passing by a strict nature reserve, the home of trees, plants and wild animals, through a tree cemetery, where the orchards are reserved to wildlife.
It is recognised at various levels that tourism, growing exponentially into overtourism (actual global issue), whether ordinary, “nature-based”, “eco”, “scientific”, “adventure”, “conservation”, “revenge”, “de- or re-forestation”, “bad weather”, “last chance”, sport or “instratourism”, constitutes a threat to Nature in all its forms. One of the main objectives of this legal project is to protect the already critically damaged land from continued pressures, including exploitation through the uncontrolled development of local opportunistic tourism, acting in a synergetic cumulative effect with other stresses.
The tourism developing in the absence of proactive management and long-term planning, factors which are aggravated by the fact that Tourism law, especially on adventure and nature-based tourism, is not promoted and is been enforced ad minima in the area, which led to initiating a project with a goal of restoring the Rule of Law in a localised area of
the buffer zone of a UNESCO biosphere reserve : the Laguna San Rafael national park (LSRNP).
The land of the Private Protected Area Pichimahuida (PPAP) was acquired for nature and land protection and regeneration, as well as for prevention of degrading stresses such as tourism, including prevention of the violation of the law by this industry, as it was severely degraded and deserved a better life, with a focus on sustainable DEgrowth and on the protection of the rights of Nature to survive, to heal and to develop according to its own Laws.
I. The setting:
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1. Terrestrial connection to lake Leones :
There is no official public connection between Ruta 7 (Carretera Austral) and the Leones lake and glacier. There is NO road “X-732” (???) registered in the MOP, Ministry of Public Works, see mop.gob.cl site. This information was confirmed by the Road Service of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) and several lawyers.
The connexion (the dirt track and trails) between Ruta 7 (Carretera Austral) and the Leones sector (not habilitated for public visits) of the LSRNP is a private access, closed to public use and passage. It passes through more than 20 private properties of approximately 15 different landowners, the majority being non-local investment companies. More information on the page Road, or in Spanish in: https://rutaleon.info/acceso-valle-leones
2. The sector Leones (glacier Leones and lake Leones) like all other glaciers, their lakes and GLOFs of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, is located well into the Laguna San Rafael national park (LSRNP, see map), an area under official legal protection of the State, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. There are no official entry points for public into this national park, and therefore into the ice field, in this sector. Access to nature State-protected areas is regulated by Conaf. Entries into habilitated sectors of national parks must be booked through the official pasesparques.cl platform. Permits for research in protected areas: non-compliance leads to legal charges. Authorisations for frontier areas: https://www.difrol.cl/tramites/expediciones/ . https://rutaleon.info
3. There are NO tourism operators o freelance guides who have valid permits for running business in the sector Leones of the LSRNP, a fact confirmed by the administration of the park. Please contact the management of the LSRNP for any question.
It’s important to make sure that the business or guide you hire has secured the necessary permits for the sector where he/she operates, in particular for navigation and walking on ice, as well as that other legal conditions met, in particular of the Law on Nature (2023), to avoid paying for an illegal service.
Adventure tourism check Travel agencies check Rules for scientific tourism
Legal base: Ley on Nature 21.600, Decree No. 50 on tourism concessions, Law 20.423 on tourism (modified in 2023) and its Decree No. 19, Circular A-41/003 of the maritime authority.
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- Confirmed regular checks by the park rangers in the sector Leones of the Northern Ice Field. You may be able to pay the fines directly to the management of the park (Conaf), or there is an office in Puerto Tranquilo.
- All passage through the Leones valley is under 24h surveillance. All information on non-residential passage, whether individual or with operators or guides, is transmitted to the management of the park, including number plates of cars, bikes and bicycles.
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-The signs on road 7 (Carretera Austral) at the turn into the Leones valley, in addition to infringing property and other rights, arbitrarily affect an area in State property and under legal protection of the State, what would normally constitute a legally questionable act.
II. Problems created by the tourism industry which can trigger legal consequences:
- The tourism industry have created a real problem: overlooking deliberately the critical need to meet all legal requirements necessary for the conduct of their business activities, in particular under the Law on Nature (SBAP) of 2023, thus implying collective responsibility of the tourism industry for cumulative damage by this diffuse industry, one of the world’s largest industries, with extended responsibility.
- Subjecting their clients to an illegal situation when operating either without permits in State protected areas or in private properties not open to public, such as the access through Leones valley; local tourism associations, such as AG Hielo Norte, are admitting they promote tourism businesses without valid permits.
- Commercialisation for its own benefit of the use of the property of others (res aliena), without no legal mandate for it, resulting in unjust enrichment and resulting restitution claims, as well as material losses of different kinds for the landowners affected.
- Advertising private properties and restricted State protected areas for public access and public use without any right for that, inciting trespassing private land.
- Violation of private property’ legislation (Article 19.24 of the Constitution, respective legislation, Art. 17 of the Universal Declaration of human rights), breach of property rights of the rural landowners;
- As mass tourism is an important vector of pathogens special liability can be invoked under the national law on propagation of illnesses (Art. 318.bis of the Criminal Code), the right of the home owners to check the sanitary hazards entering into their properties was violated during the Covid-19 and other epidemics.
III. Any person, physical or legal, who caused damage, physical or moral, is obliged to compensate it: If you are a tourist in the area, you may take the opportunity to claim reimbursement of damages and interests, through individual and collective civil law claims, including through the right of recourse, leading to compensation and injunction, in case of:
i) damage to property, other material loss, moral damage, resulting from legitimately assuming that you are in a space accessible to public, while you are either in a strictly private property, or State property subject to specific regulations, and therefore in an illegal situation;
ii) fines and other penalties resulting from the access to the national park (Northern Ice Field);
iii) non-acceptance into various rural properties and nature protected areas;
iv) absence of coverage by insurances, either personal or of the tour operators or guides;
purchasing a corrupted tourism product.
The claims would be addressed to:
1. The source of the misleading information: first to the tour operator, guide or Sernatur Aysen for official advertisements , including in “Chile es Tuyo”; to the Commune, if misled by the promotional signs at the turn from the Carretera Austral or you saw it in their guide; to the Rewilding foundation or Conaf Aysen (aysen.oirs@conaf.cl) if you saw it in the passport of the Parks Route, promoting “unofficial” entries in a State Protected Wilderness Area without verifying their legal status.
2. To scientific and mining tourism programmes of CIEP : promoting, via scientific programmes and for own benefit, public use of private land, without any verification of the legal status of the land. Trace Gale Detrich.
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3.To the respective business behind a publication with inappropriate information such as the article in Ladera Sur ; or to the carretera-austral.cl (a digital marketing agency from Santiago) for promoted businesses; or to the clothing company Atakama Outdoors, if you saw it there. Or to the bicycling blog you consulted. Or Swoop Patagonia and National Geographic promoting “last chance tourism”
4. If it’s the result of social media activity, the responsibility of “influencers” shall be directly triggered:
Benjamín Valenzuela Wallis.
Pilot legal project: tourism ?
A citation: “Tourism is unsustainable, effects can be mitigated, but not always. CO2 offsets are just hiding the damage”. Chris Thomson, Head of Responsible Tourism, Federation of Tour Operators.
You might imagine this landscape with several meters of soil cover on the hills, ancient native forest and unknown wildlife - the situation before the ecocide 80 years ago
Tourism is identified as a threat to bird life in the Laguna San Rafael National Park : datazone.birdlife.org.
If we loved Nature we would not have put it under intense stress
by our occasional, disposable and hedonistic visits for “recreational use”
One-third of global protected land is under intense human pressure
In 1993 EUROPARC published the ground breaking report “Loving them to death.pdf”, which called for sustainable tourism in Europe’s Protected Areas, the situation is just worsening now
If you are passing by boat by the Leones/Delta river, you will see critically degraded nature,
a novel ecosystem transformed by shock.
You may consider not to do to nature what you would not like to be done to you: abstain from violating its privacy, not consider it as an “object” or “thing”. We are protecting nature from ourselves - the best method would be to stay away.
2024
Tourism is a large source of greenhouse gas emissions and input to climate change
2022: pollution from tourism and research increasing glaciers snowmelt.
The “no-trace” tourism is a lure, the main trace
is travel to the place and our mere presence in nature.
Tourists seldom respect the places they visit
Leaving more than footprints: impact of tourism in Chilean Patagonia
Cruise tourism – amusement at the expense of the environment
“Sustainable tourism” on fast melting glaciers in an area accessible only by planes or cruise ships,
in total absence of waste management, is an oxymoron.
IV. Rules similar to those governing national parks apply to the Private Protected Area Pichimahuida (PPAP) in valley Leones, established according to the Part 8, Articles 97-105 of the Law on Nature 21.600, 2023.
Along with: Measures against overtourism
- Strict nature reserve, ecosystem in rehabilitation.
- The PPAP does not have borders with fiscal land, the land is adjacent to the national park and other private properties.
- The PPAP does not support and is not related to any tourism association, business or activity. No tourism business has rights in the PPAP. All data on tourists, cars and other similar events, individual or with tourism business (operators or guides), are transmitted to the management of the national park on regular basis. - All tourism and scientific investigations are banned via the Real Right of Conservation agreement included in the land titles (Law 20.930). Details: Property Register, Chile Chico. Only tourism allowed: tourism in legal matters.
- The property is monitored with surveillance cameras and drones. The images are the property of the landowners and can be used at their judgement within the limits of the law. The landowners reserve the right to transmit the data of your passage to the legal authorities in case of damage.
- Any professional/commercial use of any device capable of photographing or filming, including drones, without explicit agreement by the landowners or land stewards (lawyers, under the Real right of conservation) is prohibited, like in any private property or national park. The management reserves the right to take necessary legal measures for non‐observance of this rule and to invoke respective liability. Liked to death: the impacts of social media and photography on biodiversity
- Drones are banned, Reglamento sobre Filmaciones y Captura de Imágenes en Áreas Silvestres Protegidas.
- The signposting was entirely done using only personal funds, for purposes of training of students in law.
- Any removal of wild fruits, plants or animals will be prosecuted by law.
Nature is not your Disneyland, it works hard to survive.
‘Green growth’ doesn’t exist – less of everything is the only way to avert catastrophe
Trip financed by CIEP, National Geographic and Patagonia: “In the habitat I am exploring the human is not welcome.
How can I prevent people from going here and destroy everything?”
Tourism is the second, after climate change, cause of glaciers melting (SER Conference, Iceland, September 2018)
Disease outbreaks more likely in deforestation areas
Scientific tourism in the form of scientific research expeditions and biodiversity
assessments generally present risks for the ecosystem they study.
V. Disclaimers:
- The PPAP cannot be made liable for facilitating the illegality of third parties’ actions in the LSRNP and in private properties, neither for promoting unrestricted access to those, an action for which any person, physical or legal, would be legally liable.
- The PPAP is not and cannot be assigned to the regional ZOIT Chelenko, unlike shown on its map. It was included arbitrarily in this Zone of Tourism Industry, developed in private properties without prior consultation and agreement. Only communal and inter-communal territories or certain areas within them, that require conservation measures and integrated planning, may be declared ZOITs (Art. 13 Law on Tourism 20.423).
- The PPAP is in no way related to the tourism business “Ruta Leon”, nor Turismo Kalem Patagonia, nor to their camping Ventisquero Leon, at the start of the valley. In no way can it share the liability for any initiative of these businesses. Any relevant authorisation or signature issued by its staff is to be considered as fraud, a complaint was filed.
The tourism business which has been the most active in selling the use of land and investments of the landowners of the valley, to access the State protected area (Kalem Patagonia), according to the monitoring of tourists’ passage through the PPAP, is in no way associated with this PPAP or benefits from any authorisation by it. Ana Anita Luisa Romero Aguirre, @rutaleon, Franco Trinidad Rojas, Pascual Diaz, Roger Pascual Díaz Georgia, cabalgasur, @kalem_patagonia, @cabalgasur, @montagna_patagonia, balloon aysen, Ana Maria Seguel Beroiza, Moises Ignacio Diaz Seguel , el puesto rio tranquilo
- The PPAP is in no way related to any Airbnb, camping or lodge in the area. All accommodation services must be obligatorily registered in Sernatur (Law 20.423).
A private site-based legal monitoring programme was initiated in order to address this accountability and liability impasse, affecting Nature protection and law enforcement, and diluting responsibilities.
A private site-based legal monitoring programme was initiated in order to address this accountability and liability impasse, affecting nature and law enforcement, and diluting responsibilities.
Tourism leading to the disneyfication of nature and of the local culture.
