Overview

• The 2025 National Glacier Inventory shows a 42% drop in glacier surface since 1995 and ongoing ice loss across 8,484 km² of the 16,968 identified ice masses.
• Melting accelerated after 2015 as persistent warming and renewed mining explorations pushed glacier decline beyond natural thaw rates.
• Remaining Andean glaciers cover about 5,800 km² and feed 39 hydrological basins that supply fresh water to seven million people.
• The Instituto Nacional de Glaciares enforces the Ley de Glaciares but struggles with legal and economic pressures from expanding mining interests.
• UNESCO declared 2025 the International Year of Glacier Conservation and launched a 2025–2034 Decade of Cryosphere Science to bolster research and policy responses.