Alberto de Agostini

Alberto de Agostini National Park was created in 1965 in the Magallanes region, in the Chilean sector of Tierra del Fuego, and protects some 14,600 km². It bears the name of the Italian Salesian priest and explorer Alberto María de Agostini, who travelled and mapped the region in the early twentieth century.

Its territory is a labyrinth of fjords, channels, islands and mountains, practically uninhabited and reachable almost exclusively by sea. It is dominated by the Darwin range, the only mountain chain in the Andes running east to west and the one that holds the continent's last icefields before Cape Horn: dozens of glaciers descend from its summits to sea level, calving directly into the fjords.

The vegetation is Magellanic forest of lenga, Magellan's beech and canelo, or winter's bark, in the sheltered areas, and peat bog and tundra in those exposed to the constant westerly wind. The fauna is essentially marine and coastal, with elephant seals, sea lions, Peale's dolphins and bird colonies. The park forms part of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, declared by UNESCO in 2005, which also includes Cape Horn National Park, the southern sector of the Darwin range and the islands of Hoste and Navarino, and which is reckoned one of the most pristine ecoregions on the planet.