The reserve is open to the public, and includes demonstration trails, various tourism opportunities run by local communities, and beaches that are highly visited in the summer time.

Moreover, the reserve's permanent management arrangement is unsettled, and it remains threatened by government plans to continue building the Southern Coastal Highway[3] which would greatly impact the Colun and Rio Bueno areas.

Eighty-three percent of the reserve is categorized as Valdivian temperate rainforest and 7.8% had previously been cleared, burned and planted with eucalyptus plantations.

Extensive collaboration between the reserve, local NGOs and fishing associations has yielded a pilot cooperative management agreement to study and work to recover benthic resources in one of these areas.

Neighbors to the reserve include the Huilliche indigenous community of Huiro located on the coast south of Chaihuin.