Activists outraged that sacred Chilean island listed for sale for $20m

Guafo and its waters are being offered for sale for $20m

Credit: WWF Chile

Activists have voiced their outrage after a sacred Chilean island was listed for sale for $20 million. 

The island of Guafo is part of the ancestral land of the Mapuche people and a hotspot for biodiversity, sitting on a route taken by blue whales. 

But the 50,000-acre island is now on the market, reigniting a debate in Chile over private ownership versus national patrimony. 

Local indigenous people and environmentalists are incensed that the island’s 83 square mile expanse and its waters are being offered to the highest bidder on a site dedicated to private islands. 

An advertisement on Private Islands Inc said the island “boasts more than 44 miles of coastline and provides a home to a diverse array of flora and fauna”.

The flora includes rare tree species, while the area sees humpback, blue, sei and southern right whales, as well as orcas and dolphins. 

“The island is the entry point to the Gulf of Corcovado which is the most important feeding ground for blue and humpback whales on the Chilean coast,” Yacqueline Montecinos, head of marine biodiversity conservation at the WWF, said. 

WWF Chile has been campaigning for the island’s waters to be protected since 2017, but now backs a bid from the indigenous Mapuche Huilliche communities to monitor its coastline. 

“We are asking the government to consider returning [the island],” said Cristian Chiguay, a leader of eleven Lafkenche de Quillón communities part of the scheme to conserve the area. 

“We see [the island] as a source of life and spiritual power. For us it’s not a business, it doesn’t have commercial value.”

Chile’s government said that the future owner would not be obliged to turn the island into a conservation area. 

One of six Chilean islands currently for sale on Private Islands Inc, Guafo was withdrawn from Sotheby’s Realty this week amid media attention.