Chile created five national parks over 10 million acres in a historic act of conservation
Chile created five sprawling national parks to preserve vast tracts of Patagonia – the culmination of more than two decades of land acquisition by the US philanthropists Doug Tompkins and Kristine McDivitt Tompkins and the largest donation of private land to the government in South America. The five parks, spanning 10.3m acres, were signed into law by Chile’s ex-president Michelle Bachelet in 2017, launching a new 17-park route that stretches down the southern spine of Chile to Cape Horn. McDivitt Tompkins,…
The Future of National Parks in Argentina: An Interview with Ignacio Jiménez
The Conservation Land Trust Argentina is an organization which promotes the creation of national parks to expand their localization and re-introduce the wildlife that was lost in these areas due to human activities. We had the opportunity to talk with its Conservation Director, Ignacio Jiménez, to discuss different projects the foundation has in Argentina, the questions that surround them, and the future of conservation in Argentina. The Conservation Land Trust of Argentina is a branch of Tompkins Conservation,…
Conservationist Douglas Tompkins dies during kayak accident in Chilean Patagonia
Laguna Blanca Entre Ríos Province, a Tompkins Project
Douglas Tompkins Dies in boating Accident Douglas Tompkins, 72, the renowned conservationist and co-founder of The North Face, died on Tuesday in a kayaking accident in Lake General Carrera, on the Chilean side of Patagonia. He reportedly capsized in the water and suffered severe hypothermia. Tompkins is perhaps most famous for founding The North Face, then a mail order operation, in 1964. A climbing and backpacking enthusiast from the San Francisco Bay Area, Tompkins was friends with another outdoor enthusiast-turned-retailer,…
Investor Douglas Tompkins is Creating a Future Patagonian National Park
Douglas Tompkins—the founder of Esprit and The North Face—is using his fortune to build massive national parks in Chile and Argentina. But what he sees as philanthropy, local ranchers see as meddling. Everyone in Patagonia is talking about: Conservación Patagonica, the latest addition to the world’s largest private conservation project. Fifteen years ago, in the June 1999 issue of The Atlantic, William Langewiesche wrote about Tompkins’s first major venture into conservation in Chile, describing both…
