Fundación Glaciares Chilenos has five lines of action: protect, visualize, educate, investigate, and connect, within which we frame our projects. Throughout education and connection with communities, we look to promote ecological awareness and local actions considering the current and future state of the environment.
The Atrapanieves [Snow-catcher] Project is a citizen science project to understand our snow as a sustainable and local water resource. It’s located in the Cajón del Maipo commune, in the southeast zone of the Metropolitana region of Chile, about 92 km from Santiago, close to the confluence of the Morales and Volcán rivers. In November 2020, the project was entered into the 2021 Fondo de Protección Ambiental (FPA) [Environmental Protection Fund] of the Ministry of the Environment and was awarded in April of the same year.
The FPA supports citizen initiatives and partially or completely finance projects or activities, which are focused on environmental protection or reconstruction, sustainable development, nature’s preservation, or environmental heritage’s preservation.
At Fundación Glaciares, we carry out voluntary work; therefore, all our resources are spent in the project execution, which is stipulated in the initial application.
The central concepts of the “Atrapanieves” project are environmental education and citizen science, which improves the communities’ knowledge about the natural surroundings where they live.
Focused on snow science, the project involves the assembly of snow barriers for its stockpile and study by the community. For this objective, different activities associated with ecological education will be carried out, such as workshops and lectures about environmental education and climate change. These activities will be delivered three times, where the “Atrapanieves” project will be presented. The lectures will be offered to the beneficiary communities from Baños Morales and Lo Valdés towns, along with members of the German Alpine Club (DAV according to its German initials), an organism associated with the project. The activities also consider the implementation of a snow science workshop, a construction workshop and how to use the Meteorological Center.
The first steps of the project have already been made. The first one was the sign installation in the Lo Valdés Refugee, belonging to the DAV, which displays information about the FPA implementation.
It’s important to highlight that the beneficiaries of this FPA – such as the community from Baños Morales, Lo Valdés, and the DAV – have shown great interest in collaborating and being part of this initiative that seeks to promote citizen science in the face of current challenges of climate change.
The Fundación Glaciares trajectory has been focused on activities around glacier science and environmental education, including communities from national territory, as well as, Latin American and abroad, through our communication platforms.
As Fundación Glaciares, we want to deeply express gratitude for showing interest in being part of this wonderful project. We strongly believe in the collaboration and connection with communities to build a sustainable and viable future in harmony with nature, glaciers, and its ecosystems.
Photo of the sign located at the entrance of DAV’s refugee, 2022 / © Nicolás González Segura.
