Los Flamencos

Declared in 1990 and arranged in seven separate sectors across the Atacama — the driest desert in the world outside the poles — this reserve protects salt flats and high Andean lagoons where, remarkably, three of the six flamingo species on the planet come together: the Chilean, the Andean and James's flamingo, the last of these rediscovered alive in 1957 after decades given up as extinct. It has been part of UNESCO's Laguna Los Flamencos Biosphere Reserve since 1990 and of the international network of Ramsar protected wetlands.