"The climber sees the valley from above.
The valley doesn't know
the climber is there."
High valley · Cochamó · Patagonia, Chile
Cochamó · Patagonia · Chile — Open Source Conservation
The tools to protect it don't exist yet.
Granite is an open-source platform for conservation,
safety, and sustainable management of the Cochamó territory.
Manifesto
01
How many species live in this territory — and at what rate are they disappearing?
02
Can 15,000 visitors per season be managed in a pristine wilderness without a single digital tool?
03
What does the American mink do to high-altitude bird and amphibian populations — and who is watching?
04
What happens to a backcountry traveler who suffers an accident in a remote valley with no coverage and no registration system?
Cochamó is a valley of exceptional ecological richness: ancient alerce forests, endangered huemul deer, glacial rivers that have never been dammed, and granite walls that rise thousands of meters above intact temperate rainforest. It is one of the last places in Patagonia where large mammal populations still move freely across their historic range.
It receives 15,000 visitors per season. It has one email address for all arriero bookings. It has no biodiversity monitoring program. It has no search-and-rescue coordination system. It has no integrated reservation platform for its campsites.
"The tools to do this correctly don't exist yet. Granite is where we build them."
Granite doesn't promise implementation. It is a legitimate bridge between external innovators and the territory — backed by a decade of conservation work in the Cochamó valley and deep ties with the communities, organizations, and people who inhabit it.
Every line of code, every sensor deployed, every dataset opened belongs to the commons.
The Territory
Biodiversity
Ancient alerce forests, endemic species, glacial ecosystems. One of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in temperate South America.
No monitoring programWildlife
Huemul, puma, condor, and dozens of endemic species still living in populations the rest of Patagonia has already lost.
No camera trap networkVisitors
15,000 people per season — trekkers, researchers, families, horseback riders, and yes, climbers — navigating a territory with no digital infrastructure.
No reservation systemClimbing
World-class big wall granite. Cochamó is known globally for its climbing — but it represents a small fraction of what this territory holds.
No bivouac registration
Architecture
Layer 01
Terrain
Terreno
Layer 02
Intelligence
Inteligencia
Layer 03
Management
Gestión
Design Principles
Designed to work without connectivity. The valley has none.
Solar and battery. No grid access in the high valleys.
Each component works independently. No single point of failure.
Built for Cochamó. Designed for every wilderness like it.
All datasets belong to the commons. No proprietary lock-in.
The arrieros, the rangers, the researchers. They decide.
Open Issues
These are real, documented challenges in the territory. Each one is an open GitHub issue. Each one is an invitation.
Contribute
Conservationist, engineer, researcher, designer, or simply someone who believes wilderness is worth protecting — there is a role for you here.