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Caring for what was here before us
Las Balsas has been part of this forest and this lake for over 35 years. Caring for them is not a programme — it is simply how the hotel operates. And has always operated.
B CORP SINCE 2021 · RECERTIFIED 2025 · AVES ARGENTINAS
B CORP CERTIFICATION
The first hotel in the world certified as both: B Corp and Relais & Châteaux.
In 2021, after a long and rigorous external evaluation, Las Balsas joined the B Corp community — companies that measure their impact not only by profit, but by what they do for their people, their community, and the environment. It is the first Relais & Châteaux property in the world to hold this certification. Recertified in 2025.
The B Corp certification measures five areas: governance, workers, customers, community, and environment. Joining meant committing — legally, not just as a statement — to making decisions with long-term impact in mind.
THE SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMME
Four pillars.
Each one measurable.
01
A sustainable hotel & kitchen
Local products, ecological cleaning, artisan suppliers, and a kitchen that cooks Patagonian cuisine from what the land offers. 79% of our suppliers are local. 88% are small family businesses or micro-enterprises.
02
Minimal ecological footprint
Carbon offset through our own native forest. Wastewater fully treated on-site and reused for irrigation. Zero single-use plastics. Waste reduced by 50% through a composting programme and zero-waste principles.
03
Unique Patagonian Biodiversity
15 ha of native Patagonian forest and wetland, protected in a private nature reserve. Integrated into the Aves Argentinas national reserve network, with a commitment to minimum intervention.
04
Local community makes that possible
81.6% of staff are permanent residents of Villa La Angostura. 73% of purchasing goes into the local economy. Las Balsas participates actively in the life of the village — its associations, commerce and its future.
THE NATURE RESERVE
We protect the forest. It protects us back.
Of Las Balsas's 15 total hectares, 14 are natural environments of Patagonian native forest and wetland — barely touched. The remaining hectare is where the hotel itself stands.
The reserve includes a stretch of the great mallín wetland known as "Mallín Grande" — one of the most biologically rich ecosystems in the region — plus native coihue, cypress, and ñire forest, and 500 metres of Nahuel Huapi lakeshore. Together, these environments absorb carbon from the atmosphere every year, helping offset the hotel's own footprint.
The interpretive trail — 1.5 km, built by the hotel team during the pandemic — is exclusively available to Las Balsas guests. Guided by those who know every bird and plant on it.
WE ARE COMMUNITY
The people who make this place are from this place.
Las Balsas has been part of Villa La Angostura for over 35 years. The team, the suppliers, the artisans — nearly all of them are neighbours. That is not a policy. It is how a small hotel in a small Patagonian village naturally operates when it takes its community seriously.
81.6%
OF STAFF ARE LOCAL RESIDENTS
The hotel employs 40 people in high season. The great majority are permanent residents of Villa La Angostura. This commitment to local employment ensures a guest experience rooted in the people and culture of Patagonia.
79%
OF SUPPLIERS ARE LOCAL
149 regular suppliers in 2022. 79% are local, 88% are small family businesses or micro-enterprises. Since 2019, the number of suppliers has tripled — a deliberate effort to spread economic benefit into the community.
73%
OF PURCHASING STAYS IN THE LOCAL ECONOMY
Of every peso spent at Las Balsas, 32% goes directly to staff salaries and 35% to local suppliers. Two thirds of the value of a stay circulates within Villa La Angostura before it leaves.
BIRDS & FAUNA
Look up. Look down. Look twice.
The reserve holds 92 recorded species and is an official monitoring station in the Aves Argentinas network.
Condors visible from the terrace on clear mornings. The Magellanic woodpecker announces itself before you see it. None of this requires effort — only a willingness to look.
Andean Condor
Vultur gryphus
Visible from the Las Balsas terrace on clear mornings, riding the thermals above the lake. A wingspan of up to 3.2 metres. One of the largest flying birds in the world.
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Magellanic Woodpecker
Campephilus magellanicus
Its drumming carries through the coihue forest before you see it. The male has a full red head; the female a black recurved crest and a small red patch.
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Austral Thrush
Turdus falcklandii
A permanent resident of Las Balsas, it forages on the garden lawn in the morning and sings at dusk. One of the primary seed dispersers of the Valdivian forest.
Sapito de cuatro ojos
Pleurodema thaul
A small Andean frog recorded in the forest of the reserve. One of several amphibian species monitored as part of the Aves Argentina data programme
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Red-gartered Coot
Fulica armillata
All-black plumage, yellow bill with a red band where bill meets shield. Feeds on aquatic vegetation, diving in open water or grazing along the shoreline.
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Black-necked Swan
Cygnus melancoryphus
Grey head and neck, chestnut chest, white belly with dark flank barring. Seen in pairs along the shoreline; in winter, in larger flocks on the open water.
FLORA · VALDIVIAN RAINFOREST
A forest that has been growing here for centuries.
The Valdivian temperate rainforest is one of the rarest ecosystems on earth — found only in a narrow band along the Chilean-Argentine Andes.
The species that grow around Las Balsas have been here longer than the road, longer than the town, longer than any record of human presence in this valley.
Arrayán
Luma apiculata
The defining tree of Patagonian lakeshore forests. Cinnamon bark, always cool to the touch and sacred in Mapuche Culture. The oldest specimens grow in the Quetrihué Peninsula. The same species grows in the reserve, younger, but part of the same unbroken forest.
Coihue
Nothofagus dombey
The dominant tree of the Valdivian rainforest — evergreen, massive, permanent. Coihues grow to 40 metres and live for centuries. In a forest where the ñire turns amber and the lenga turns red, the coihue is the reason the forest is dark inside even in summer.
Notro
Embothrium coccineum
Known as the Chilean firetree — and in spring, that name earns itself entirely. The scarlet flowers appear in September through November when the Andes are still white. One of the most vivid seasonal signals in the valley.
THE PLACE · VILLA LA ANGOSTURA
Full transparency.
Public reports.
Las Balsas has published a full sustainability report every 3 years since 2020. Each one covers all four pillars of the programme — in detail, with numbers, and with honest acknowledgement of what still needs improving. Download them.
LAS BALSAS · SUSTAINABILITY
A place that was here long before us.
And will be here long after.
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