In the early '60s, at the peak of whale hunting, a group of visionaries dreamed of a gigantic whale sanctuary where the huge sea mammals could find refuge from persecution, enjoy stable population growth and avoid extinction. Few people believed in the dream, much less that it would come true 30-years later. Antarctica, the last undeveloped continent on Earth, is also now protected as a world park, with all involved countries agreeing to a 50-year moratorium on development.

A few inhabitants of the southern valleys of Patagonia also share a dream. Gathered behind a program called Proyecto Lemu (Project Forest), they have joined forces with Los Defensores del Bosque Chileno and Fundacφon Lahuen on the other side of the Andes. Together these groups launched the idea of an all-encompassing sanctuary for sub-Antarctic forests, to be called the Gondwana Forests Sanctuary. This visionary concept is now embraced by a growing and determined coalition of forest defenders around the globe.

The Gondwana Forests Sanctuary encompasses the sub-Antarctic forests of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Britain. The sanctuary would primarily protect the Nothofagus genus of trees (southern beech), as well as ancient forests of araucaria, alerce and other unique and imperiled species. Gondwanaland is the name of the ancient supercontinent that originally joined these forested territories during the Eocene era more than 100-million years ago. Even today, the forests of these southern areas are both biologically similar and severely threatened by large-scale commercial logging and woodchipping by a host of multinational corporations.

In April, forest activists and scientists from Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Scotland and the US met in Chile to launch the Gondwana Forest Sanctuary Campaign "to protect, reconnect and restore the life of Gondwana by creating an international sanctuary of Earth's southernmost forests."

We visited some of these incredible ancient forests while in Chile and Argentina. Herquehue National Park, in Chile's Lake District, shelters a fantastic array of huge coihue trees, with immense spreading crowns draped with vines, moss and lichens, sheltering an understory of bamboo-like kila. Higher in the park, above small lakes cradled among steep green mountains and granite cliffs, rise immense stands of araucaria. These bizarre trees give the entire landscape an incredibly ancient and exotic air. Their leaves are more like spiny scales, covering their entire umbrella-like crown in prickly armor. Their thick bark forms plates like the skin of a dinosaur. Far off through the forest we saw the alluring white cone of Volcan Villarica.

The Cani Sanctuary in Chile provides a microcosmic example of how these increasingly rare and precious forests can be conserved and restored. Due to be logged in 1990, the 500 hectares of the Cani were instead purchased with the assistance of Ancient Forest International. Fundacφon Lahuen, Chile's first non-governmental organization dedicated exclusively to forest protection and conservation, now administers the Cani and associated projects, including a native tree nursery at Pichares (the first in Chile) and local education projects in which schoolchildren raise and plant native trees.

While in Argentine Patagonia, we made a day trip to Los Alerces National Park, which was deserted except for a wild boar poacher. While we did not get to the famous but remote forests of alerce, the southern version of the redwood, we were mesmerized by the beautiful string of clear lakes and rivers alive with waterfowl, mirroring the green cypress forests and crimson lenga trees. Graceful, madrone-like arrayan trees lined the lakes and rivers, and colorful edible berries abounded.

The first goal of the Gondwana Forest Sanctuary Campaign is to protect the remaining primary forests in Tierra del Fuego, comprising the southernmost forests on Earth, in both Chile and Argentina. These sub-Antarctic forests are currently threatened by the $200-million Rio Condor logging project initiated by the US-based Trillium Corp. (see accompanying article). Composed of 360,000 hectares of 10,000-year-old lenga forest (Nothofagus pumilio), a wide-ranging, well-adapted deciduous southern beech tree, this boreal forest region is highly fragile.

The Gondwana campaign intends to create an international system of intercontinental forest reserves starting at the tip of South America, in Tierra del Fuego, and spreading northward and outward. Tierra del Fuego will serve as the model for the Gondwana campaign, which seeks to prepare a comprehensive bi-national forest preservation and land use plan for this huge island. This effort will bring together an interdisciplinary team of economists, anthropologists, archeologists, foresters, geologists, biologists, appropriate technology/permaculture consultants and local representatives. Its purpose is to guide communities away from large-scale industrial development projects like Rio Condor.

Efforts are also underway to create a "Trans-Andean Wildlands Complex," potentially one of the world's largest protected areas (5,000,000 hectares), 1,000 miles to the north.

For further information on the Gondwana Forests Sanctuary Campaign contact Rick Klein/Dave Walsh, Ancient Forest International, POB 1850, Redway, CA 95560; (707) 923-3015; afi@igc.apc.org. NFN Yellowstone, Phil Knight, POB 6151, Bozeman, MT, 59771; (406) 586-3885; pknight@wildrockies.org. In Australia: John Seed, Rainforest Information Centre, POB 368 Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia; jseed@igc.org.