Abstract

To ensure the long-term conservation of the natural ecosystems heterogeneity in Western Patagonia, effective techniques are required for evaluating, planning and redesigning the Protected Areas National System. In this study, the concept of ecosystem value was defined as the content of ecosystem processes, services and goods, to justify nature conservation in Western Patagonia. This document describes a methodological exercise, to assist the decision-making process related to protected areas planning. The main proposition of this study is the Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE) to determine the conservation significance of Patagonia's different terrestrial units. This method is based on the ecosystem processes, which were used as evaluation criteria, to distinguish the key ecological units to the supply of ecosystem values. For each unit, each criterion was scored according to expert knowledge and available bibliographic information, and applied on a qualitative scale. The final ecosystem value score, for each unit was derived using Multi-Criteria Evaluation, and these results were then mapped. To support this evaluation, the same procedure was followed to identify the threat level to which the ecological units are exposed, using as criteria, the anthropic degrading actions. The final results show an uneven system of protected areas arrangement in Western Patagonia, leaving an extensive land surface unprotected, which has the highest priority value in conservation. © 2008 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.