Familia Torres will plant trees in Chilean Patagonia to mitigate the effects of climate change

The winery has acquired a property covering over 5,000 hectares in Chile’s southernmost region.

The Torres f amily has acquired an extensive property in Chilean Patagonia with a view to mitigating the effects of climate change. The 5,000- hectare estate, located i n Aysén, i s known as “Los Cóndores.“It will be used to plant forests, with a double objective: compensate the winery’s carbon footprint through their own efforts and recover the forest landscape that historically characterized this area.

Los Cóndores is a livestock ranch, with grassland steppe and lagoons with abundant birds. When settlers arrived here in the late 19th century, they replaced the native forests with plantations. The Torres’ intention is to reforest this land, preserving the local flora and fauna. In 2016, they acquired a 740-hectare estate for the same reason, also in Chilean Patagonia, in Coyhaique province at Altos de Ñirehuao.

Forests contribute to the fight against climate change thanks to their ability to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store the carbon i n the form of biomass ( trunk, branches, bark, and roots). Around

half of the plant’s dry matter is carbon. Trees capture more CO2 during their growth stage, until reaching full maturity. Sustainable forest management ensures the permanence, improvement, growth, and renewal of the forest mass, enabling carbon to be retained permanently over time.

Says Miguel A. Torres, the winery’s president: “Both i n Chile and in Spain, we have a l arge f orest area that allows us to preserve the l andscape and care for the environment. Planting forests in certain areas will help us to reduce our CO2 emissions even more and go further i n our environmental commitment.”

Forest stewardship and the reforestation of natural spaces is part of the Torres family commitment to care for the Earth and conserve the environment. It is reflected in the Torres & Earth program, whose main aim is to reduce the winery’s carbon footprint to help combat climate change. In 2017, the winery’s CO2 emissions per bottle in its full reach - from the vineyard to shipments - were 25.4% lower compared to 2008, and the aim is to reach 30% by 2020.