Chile operates under the Sistema Nacional de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas del Estado (SNASPE), administered by the Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF) since 1984. The system encompasses 106 protected units covering 14.6 million hectares, approximately 19.3 percent of continental Chile's total area. These units divide into three categories: national parks (parques nacionales), national reserves (reservas nacionales), and natural monuments (monumentos naturales). In 2018, President Michelle Bachelet signed decrees creating five new national parks and expanding three existing ones, adding 4.5 million hectares to the protected system in a single action, the largest land conservation donation in history at that time. Chile's protected areas span from the Altiplano at 4,500 meters elevation to the sub-Antarctic islands below the 56th parallel south, encompassing desert, Mediterranean scrubland, temperate rainforest, glaciated peaks, and oceanic ecosystems across 38 degrees of latitude.
Torres del Paine National Park, established February 13, 1959 as Parque Nacional de Turismo Lago Grey, expanded to its current 181,414 hectares in 1978. The park sits in the Magallanes Region between 50°45' and 51°15' south latitude. Three granite towers, the Torres themselves, rise 2,500 meters above sea level with near-vertical walls ascending 1,000 meters from base to summit. The Cuernos del Paine, distinct from the Torres, are sedimentary peaks capped with dark metamorphic rock, reaching 2,600 meters at Cuerno Principal. Grey Glacier descends from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the third largest ice mass in the world after Antarctica and Greenland, covering approximately 150 square kilometers of the park's western sector. The glacier terminates in Grey Lake, where icebergs up to 30 meters tall drift in waters averaging 4 degrees Celsius year-round. Park attendance increased from 21,000 visitors in 1990 to 304,107 in 2019, with 68 percent arriving between December and March. The W Trek, a 71-kilometer route connecting Valle Francés, the Torres base, and Grey Glacier, requires four to five days without acclimatization considerations since maximum elevation reaches only 1,200 meters. The Circuit, also called the O Trek, extends 130 kilometers around the Paine Massif, typically walked in eight to nine days with three to four mandatory camping zones depending on chosen direction. A fire started by a Czech tourist on February 27, 2005 burned 15,400 hectares over twelve days before snow and rain suppressed it. A second fire ignited by an Israeli tourist on December 27, 2011 consumed 17,606 hectares, approximately 9.7 percent of total park area, destroying lenga and ñirre forest that requires 300 to 500 years to regenerate in this climate.
Lauca National Park occupies 137,883 hectares in Arica and Parinacota Region at elevations between 3,200 and 6,342 meters. CONAF established the park on June 20, 1970, upgraded from a forest reserve created in 1965. Parinacota volcano reaches 6,348 meters on the Bolivia-Chile border, though the summit lies entirely in Bolivia; Pomerape volcano, entirely in Chile, reaches 6,282 meters. Both volcanoes show fumarolic activity monitored by the Servicio Nacional de Geología y Minería. Lake Chungará sits at 4,517 meters elevation, making it one of the highest lakes of its size globally, with a surface area of 21.5 square kilometers and maximum depth of 40 meters. The lake contains no fish due to altitude and water chemistry, with pH ranging from 8.8 to 9.2. Vicuñas number approximately 2,000 individuals within park boundaries, counted during annual CONAF surveys conducted each November. The park protects 140 bird species including three flamingo species: Chilean flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis), Andean flamingo (Phoenicoparrus andinus), and James's flamingo (Phoenicoparrus jamesi). The giant coot (Fulica gigantea) builds floating nests up to three meters in diameter in Lake Chungará's shallows. Queñoa trees (Polylepis tarapacana) grow at elevations reaching 5,200 meters, among the highest-elevation tree species on Earth, with specimens near the park's northern boundary carbon-dated to 700 years. Visitors commonly experience acute mountain sickness symptoms within six hours of arrival due to the rapid ascent from Arica at sea level to park elevations above 4,500 meters.
Rapa Nui National Park encompasses 7,130 hectares on Easter Island, representing 43 percent of the island's 16,628-hectare total area. UNESCO designated the park a World Heritage Site on March 15, 1995. The park protects 887 moai statues inventoried by archaeologists, though total numbers may reach 1,000 when including fragments and partial sculptures. Ahu Tongariki, restored between 1992 and 1995 by Chilean archaeologist Claudio Cristino and a Japanese team led by Tadano Limited, contains fifteen moai on a platform 220 meters long, the largest ahu ever constructed. The tallest moai on the platform measures 9.8 meters and weighs approximately 86 tons. Rano Raraku quarry contains 397 moai in various completion stages, from barely outlined forms to completed statues awaiting transport. Paro, the tallest moai successfully erected on an ahu, stood 9.9 meters tall at Ahu Te Pito Kura before being toppled; its pukao (topknot) weighs eleven tons, carved from red scoria at Puna Pau quarry. Orongo ceremonial village, occupied seasonally between approximately 1400 CE and 1867 CE, contains 53 stone houses with walls up to 1.5 meters thick constructed from horizontal basalt slabs. Birdman (tangata manu) competitions occurred annually until 1867, when Catholic missionaries stationed permanently on the island suppressed the practice. Competitors descended Orongo's 300-meter cliff, swam 1.8 kilometers to Motu Nui islet, and returned with the first manutara (sooty tern) egg of the season. CONAF and the Rapa Nui community operate the park under a co-management agreement signed in 2016, though jurisdiction disputes continue in Chilean courts as of 2024. Park entry costs 80,000 Chilean pesos for foreign adults and 40,000 pesos for foreign children aged twelve to seventeen, as of January 2024, valid for ten consecutive days.