Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego is an island near the southern tip of South America from which it is separated by the Strait of Magellan.

The Chilean and Argentinian governments have a plan of eradicating the North American beavers in the Tierra del Fuego area at the southernmost tip of South America. The non-native species was introduced in 1946 as a potential source of commercial fur trading, and they became a difficult problem after the trading did not pan out.

The Tierra del Fuego National Park of Argentina is especially threatened, as the beavers destroy long-protected trees. The animals have expanded beyond Tierra del Fuego itself into the Brunswick Peninsula of Chile, and the government fears further penetration into continental South America.The beavers already threaten around sixteen million hectares of indigenous forest. Unlike many trees in North America, trees in South America often do not regenerate when coppiced, destroying the forest.

The climate in this region is very inhospitable. It is a subpolar oceanic climate with long, wet, winters: the northeast is characterized by strong winds and little precipitation, in the south and west it is very windy, foggy, and wet for most of the year, and there are very few days without rain, slush, hail or snow. Snowfall can occur in summer.

Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke travel around
the world, turning night into day.

With flashlights and torches, the photographers
set their Lightpaintings in unusual landscapes.
The photographs have been pubished in major
international magazines and books.


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