The Centro de Investigación del Humedal del Río Cruces, or Centro de Humedales Río Cruces, was born from an unprecedented instance in their country: the Social Scientific Council created to specify the guidelines for compliance with the restoration measures of the Río Cruces Wetland , which includes the Ramsar Site Sanctuary of Nature and its tributary rivers, which was ruled by the First Civil Court of Valdivia, on July 27, 2013, in the case brought by the State of Chile against the company Arauco SA. 

According to the agreement of this Council, the Cruces River Wetland Research Center was established, under the institutional protection of the Austral University of Chile, as an autonomous and decentralized management center, whose structural base is made up of three chambers - social, economic and scientific - and a board of directors made up of two representatives of the Regional Government of Los Ríos (Seremi de Medio Ambiente and Seremi de Agricultura), two representatives of the Austral University of Chile, a representative of the Municipalities of Valdivia and Mariquina, and two representatives of each of the cameras.

The mission of the Center is to be a reference institution capable of significantly contributing to the restoration and conservation of the Río Cruces Wetland, bringing its knowledge and management.