Chile creates national park to save glaciers

Chilesaid Saturday it is creating a vastnationalparkto protect hundreds ofglaciersthat are melting due to climate change.

The newNationalGlacierParkwill cover 75,000 hectares of Andes mountain land about 60 kilometers (40 miles) from the capital Santiago, President Sebastian Pinera said at a ceremony announcing its creation.

"We are managing to protect 368glaciers," the president said.

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These masses of permanent ice hold 32 times more water than a reservoir that serves the capital city's seven million people, the president added.

A recent study by the University ofChilesaidglaciersin the central part of the country, which includes the newpark, are shrinking due to global warming.

Pinera said establishing theparkis "a fundamental step that our country is taking to combat the destruction of nature."

It will also help preserve flora native to mountain terrain and animals likes pumas and foxes.

Chileis among the world's top 10 countries as measured by glacier surface area, the government says. Others include Canada, the United States, China and Russia.