Tantauco Park (Spanish: Parque Tantauco) is a private natural reserve on the south end of

Chiloé Island Chiloé Island ( es, Isla de Chiloé, , ) also known as Greater Island of Chiloé (''Isla Grande de Chiloé''), is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago off the west coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean. The island is located in southern ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. The park was created by Chilean business magnate and later

President of Chile The president of Chile ( es, Presidente de Chile), officially known as the President of the Republic of Chile ( es, Presidente de la República de Chile), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is r ...

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (; born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman and politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic polit ...

in 2005 in order to protect 118,000 hectares of the region's unique ecosystem. Piñera owns the foundation ''Fundación Cultura y Sociedad'' (formerly ''Fundación Futuro''), which runs the park. The park is open to the public with two campgrounds and a network of hiking trails. Tantauco Park is an attractive

ecotourist Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide fund ...

destination due to the remarkable

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

of its nearly untouched

Valdivian temperate rainforest The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainforest ...

and the rather easy public access. Precipitations in the area average about annually. Some of the endangered species that can be seen in the park include Guaitecas cypress, Huillín otter, Chilote fox and the

Blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

External links

*
Tantauco Park Official Website
*
Map of the park boundaries
Protected areas of Los Lagos Region Parks in Chile Chiloé Archipelago Piñera family Protected areas established in 2005 2005 establishments in Chile Valdivian temperate forests {{SouthAm-protected-area-stub