Chilean matorral forests

• Category: Forest Biomes.
• Geographic Location: South America.
• Summary: The Chilean Matorral ecosystem is rich with wildlife, much of it endemic, but human activity and low protection status present a continuing challenge.

Outside of the Mediterranean Sea area itself, Mediterranean-type ecosystems worldwide are found in only a few areas, including the southwestern coast of Australia, the Cape of Good Hope area in South Africa, the coastal chaparral zone of California, and one part of South America: the Chilean Matorral. The term matorral refers to the Spanish word mata for scrub vegetation. The Chilean Matorral covers an area of roughly 57,300 square miles (148,000 square kilometers), predominantly a patchwork of small parks, agricultural areas, private lands, towns, and cities. Chile’s capital, Santiago, is located here, as are other urban centers.

The Matorral is a narrow stretch of land in central Chile, extending south from one of the driest deserts in the world, the Atacama, to the mixed deciduous-evergreen temperate zone known as the Valdivian forests. The northern boundary includes a transitional semiarid zone in north-central Chile known as El Norte Chico.

The Matorral is about 350 miles (563 kilometers) long and 62 miles (100 kilometers) wide. Here, the summers are hot and dry and prone to drought conditions; winters are wet and mild. The mean annual temperature is 54 degrees F (12.2 degrees C). The native plant and animal communities in the Chilean Matorral biome are species-rich, with a very high proportion of endemism (found only in this ecosystem), particularly among plants.

Flora and Fauna

As a plant community, Matorral refers to a zone of sclerophyll shrubs and trees (i.e., evergreen “hard-leaved” woody vegetation with small, waxy leaves that prevent water loss in the dry summer); cacti, bromeliads, and palms; and diverse understories of herbs, vines, and grasses. Most of the scrubland was created by human activity and is a successional remnant of the native sclerophyllous forest. It exists as a mosaic of shrubs and trees within a matrix of naturalized herbaceous plants. Notable endemic and threatened species include the keule, pitao, ruil, and the Chilean wine palm.

This land hosts many animals that are specially adapted to their unique habitat, with a few endemic species—making them primarily dependent upon protected areas for their survival. These include many small mammals, such as the chilla, a fox-like animal; the Chilean mouse opossum; the kodkod, the smallest wildcat in the Americas; and the degu, an endemic rodent characteristic of central Chile. Several lizard species are also endemic to the Chilean Matorral, as are a few bird species. Among the latter are the Chilean mockingbird, several species of tapaculo, and two species of parrots; other bird species include the giant hummingbird and some predatory species such as the aplomado falcon, cinereous harrier, and the short-eared owl.

Human Impact

The ecoregion’s core, the Central Valley, constitutes Chile’s most intensively inhabited area. It is very fertile and is the agricultural heartland with major wine, vegetable, and fruit industries. In the more southerly parts, fruit, crops, pasture, and fire-prone pine and eucalyptus plantations are widespread. Because of the high agricultural value, the Central Valley of Chile has been highly modified since the arrival of Europeans. Although records based on fossil charcoal suggest that fires may have appeared with early Indigenous settlement around 14,000 years ago, it is only since Spanish colonization that fires have become frequent. The Matorral is poorly fire-adapted; human-induced fires cause major and long-lasting damage. Human-caused fires can reduce the regeneration of native sclerophyllous vegetation and promote shifts in species composition. Moreover, the capacity of regeneration of these sclerophyllous species is often low—even after cessation of livestock grazing—because of constant soil disruption and shoot consumption pressures from introduced rabbits and hares.

Logging and mining, with the ensuing roadways and pollution that are created, have contributed to habitat loss here. The increasing density of the road network goes hand-in-hand with invasions by exotic species and with deforestation, both being positively correlated with distance to primary roads. The rate of introductions of invasive plant species is high across the region. Intentionally and unintentionally, nonnative species have spread rapidly and uncontrollably, further promoted by the secondary plant and animal invaders that come with the introduction of controlled populations of livestock. The consequences can be severe. Introductions not only modify patterns of abundance and distribution of native species, but they also cause local extinctions and, especially in the case of plantations of exotic trees, can significantly modify soil, microclimate, and fire characteristics, thus irreversibly altering the environmental physiology of the ecosystem.

Despite its highly unique biodiversity, the Chilean Matorral is perhaps the least protected of the world’s five major Mediterranean regions. Within Chile, formal protection remains limited relative to other major ecosystems. The Worldwide Fund for Nature (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) has assessed this ecoregion’s conservation status to be Critical/Endangered. There remains a significant proportion of unprotected natural and semi-natural land with conservation potential, while human pressure persists.

More intensive and efficient protection and conservation action is urgently required; some conservation schemes on private land and neighborhood initiatives have emerged. In 2010, the Altos de Cantillana Nature Sanctuary, located approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Santiago, was established by the Chilean government, protecting 6,778 acres (2,743 hectares) of Matorral. Although there is relatively little protected public land in Chile, the concept of private land trusts has gained momentum. These small parcels are considered complementary to the National Public System of Protected Areas—Sistema Nacional de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas del Estado (SNASPE), which unifies conservation efforts within and between the country’s national parks, reserves, and monuments. Protected areas such as Nonguén National Park conserve representative tracts of Mediterranean forest within the region. Los Queules National Reserve preserves remnant stands of Maulino forest, a distinctive coastal forest community in the transition between Mediterranean central Chile and wetter temperate forests farther south. Despite these gains, only approximately 2% of the Chilean matorral forest is formally protected.

Global warming scenarios generally point to warmer and drier climate in Mediterranean biomes such as the Chilean Matorral forests. Climate change has caused droughts in the area, which makes the region more prone to wildfires. These conditions can increase pressure on plant and animal species to shift their ranges and can accelerate habitat fragmentation.

Bibliography

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Katz, Eduardo. “Chile: Increasing Connectivity for Nature and People in Highly Biodiverse Landscapes.” Nature-Based Solutions and Protected Areas, edited by José A. Barros, Springer, 2024, pp. 499–517.

Ortiz, Jose. “Compound and Simple Leaf Woody Species of the Chilean Matorral Are Equally Affected by Extreme Drought.” Research Square, 16 Mar. 2022, doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1440069/v1. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.