During 2017, Fundación Legado Chile has carried out an Environmental Action Plan, which is the adaptation of the Open Standards for Conservation, which involves adaptive management processes and provides a conceptual working framework for the diagnosis, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of environmental projects.[5][6][7][8][9] This plan is a prototype of social innovation that bases its operation on the participation of the communities, where they, together with decision makers and experts, define their environmental problems and formulate the required projects, facilitating the management and financing of projects based on consensual diagnoses, and with the constant support of urban planning professionals, territorial planners and ecologists.[5][6][8] From this work with the community, Fundación Legado Chile identified 10 priority conservation sites in Llanquihue, of which work plans have been created for six: Wetland Baquedano, El Loto Wetland, Los Helechos Wetland, Las Ranas Wetland, Estero Teodosio Sarao and mouth of the Maullín River.[2].
Additionally, the same year the citizen organization "La Rueda" of Llanquihue was formed, which aims to ensure the sustainable development of the city. The members of La Rueda are residents of the town and some members of institutions such as Legado de Chile and NGO Canales, as well as municipal officials and residents in general, which is why it is a transversal organization to address the interests of the Llanquihuano community.[10].
The consulting firm Patagua and the NGO Servicio País have also worked in the area.
The foundation, together with the Master of Landscape Architecture of the Catholic University and the municipality, have implemented a plan to project for the city an approximate potential of 800 thousand square meters of urban green areas, which would imply an index of about 50 m² per inhabitant.[11][12] With this, Llanquihue would become the city in Chile with the highest index of green areas per inhabitant. With almost 10 thousand m² of surface and a budget of 92 million Chilean pesos, the Baquedano Humedal Park project is the first project of the green infrastructure plan awarded by the Municipality of Llanquihue for financing to the Regional Local Initiative Fund, a fund of the Regional Government of the Los Lagos region. The construction of the Baquedano Wetland Park, which will be carried out during 2018, seeks to highlight this ecosystem as it is one of the wetlands with the greatest pressure and in the worst state of conservation.[2] The project consists of equipping the Baquedano Wetland with a system of walkways that will form a pedestrian promenade, giving great importance to this body of water for both the community and the environment.[12].
At the moment. The rubble that is discarded and the microgardens that form inside the wetlands and the progressive decrease in their surfaces since 1960, have the wetlands in a very poor state of health.[7] Specifically, the Baquedano wetland has suffered filling around its edges, which has considerably impoverished the presence of native vegetation, leaving it exposed to pollution and degradation.[12].
The foundation will carry out a monitoring system through traditional traditional methodologies, such as temperature, pH measurements and invertebrate registration. In addition, monitoring of the wetlands will be carried out through the Internet of Things, seeking to position Llanquihue as a smart city.[8] To date the lake has achieved the declaration of smart tourist destination (DTI).[13][14].
For monitoring purposes, sensors will be used that will be installed in the wetlands and will measure the following variables:
At the international level, in 2015, the UN approved the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. The Agenda has 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which include, among other goals, the elimination of poverty, the fight against climate change and the design of cities. Specifically, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 15, which includes halting the loss of biodiversity, has as one of its objectives the following: "By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and the services they provide, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under agreements international".[15].
However, as of December 2017, the municipality has not yet presented its ordinance for the care of wetlands,[7] which has allowed construction to continue on top of these threatened ecosystems. Indeed, the Technical Training Center proposed by Michelle Bachelet's second government will be located right in front of the Loto Wetland,[16][7] which will generate environmental impact on the birds' nesting sites. For this reason, senators Isabel Allende (PS), Adriana Muñoz (PPD), as well as senators Alfonso de Urresti (PS), Patricio Walker (DC) and Víctor Pérez (UDI), have presented a bill that requires municipalities to issue municipal ordinances for the care of wetlands, in addition to integrating them into law 19,300 on General Environmental Bases and in the General Law of Urban Planning and Construction of Chile.[17].
In 2017, a rule was approved that considers the protection of natural and artificial wetlands within the framework of the project that creates the Biodiversity Service and the System of Protected Areas. of parliamentarians to approve it.[22] Senator De Urresti (PS) has advocated for the defense of urban wetlands in said project and in other instances.[23][17].
In short, as of December 2017, these wetlands do not enjoy any type of special protection other than the property rights that the municipality or private parties have over them, and they can be filled and waterproofed without the need for prior authorization or any environmental impact study.