The solution implemented in the mountains of the Santiago Metropolitan region and part of the Valparaíso region seeks to contribute to the development of public-private initiatives that allow the conservation of biodiversity and protect or enhance the benefits provided by mountain ecosystems, by strengthening municipal capacities related to protecting biodiversity and strengthening biodiversity monitoring and promoting good productive practices in the territory.
The above describes the main objective of the project "Protecting Biodiversity and Multiple Ecosystem Services in Mountain Biological Corridors of the Mediterranean Ecosystem of Chile", briefly called GEF-Montaña, which is implemented in a region with biodiversity hotspots that has the largest population in the country, strongly pressured, in a context of intense drought, heat waves and mega fires. The other two components of the project seek to minimize the negative impact that some productive activities have on biodiversity. For this, good practices will be promoted in tourism, agricultural, livestock and forestry activities. In addition, incentive instruments will be perfected, as well as integrated under a landscape scale perspective, declaring for the first time in Chile the figure of "District of Soil, Water and Forest Conservation". The first district pilot was implemented under an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture in a territory of 500,000 ha in the municipality of San José de Maipo, an area of high Andean mountains and glaciers. In this municipality there are livestock communities with a tradition dating back many years with which they seek to implement adaptation techniques and protection of the territory that is affected by CC, drought and livestock overexploitation.
Chile has one of the most unique habitats in terms of flora and fauna, known as the Mediterranean ecosystem. These spaces, when they are in the mountains, provide multiple benefits such as the provision of water, air purification, soil formation, pollination, recreation and the sustenance of biodiversity. However, there is a growing degradation of biodiversity, soils and water in the mountain territories of the Central Zone of Chile, despite growing efforts by public and private institutions, in the last ten years, to reverse the deterioration. In some municipalities there are no regulations for land use and only a few actions are carried out to implement practices for biodiversity protection.