[3][4][5][6] The Patagonia National Park Project consists of four major program areas: buying land, restoring biodiversity, building public access, and engaging communities.

CONAF (Chile's National Forest Corporation) had listed the Chacabuco Valley as a top conservation priority for over 30 years due to its unique array of native ecosystems.

[10][11] The Chacabuco Valley, the heart of Patagonia National Park, was for generations a vast sheep and cattle ranch, with almost 25,000 animals being raised on the land annually.

[12] Patagonia has experienced significant ecological degradation due to intensive sheep ranching on its sandy arid soils, resulting in widespread desertification.

Conservación Patagónica's large-scale ecosystem restoration work, now carried out by Rewilding Chile, serves as the foundation for targeted species-specific programs, such as efforts to monitor and protect the endangered huemul deer.

With livestock removed, grasslands are producing more and higher quality food for a range of herbivores, which now have access to prime habitats and can roam freely without fences.

The huemul deer is a top priority for the Patagonia National Park project; habitat loss, diseases transmitted from livestock, hunting, and predation by domestic dogs have reduced its population to around 1,500 individuals.

Tracking pumas with GPS collars provides new information about their predation patterns, home ranges, and movements, which is critical given their proximity to the huemul deer population.

The architecture reflects historic Patagonian styles and uses local materials, such as on-site quarried stone and recycled wood, to ensure durability and minimal upkeep.

Additionally, an innovative renewable energy system, composed of solar, wind, and mini-hydro generation facilities, makes the park energy-independent and minimizes its carbon footprint.

These grasslands support hardy animals such as the burrowing owl, the gray fox, tuco-tuco, mara, armadillos, various eagle and hawk species, and keystone predators like the puma.

A wide range of animals thrives in the more habitable outskirts of the desert and around ephemeral lakes formed from the Andes' runoff, where trees and more nutritious aqueous grasses can grow.

The forests of Parque Patagonia also contain a variety of bird species including the Andean condor, Magellanic woodpecker, spectacled duck, black-necked swan, pygmy owl, black-faced ibis, Chilean flamingo, Austral negrito, Southern lapwing and a range of amphibians and reptiles.

Their turquoise blue water is home to substantial populations of native fish such as perch (Percichthys trucha), pejerrey patagonico (Odontesthes hatcheri) and puyen (Galaxias maculatus).