Americas Quarterly

ecological preservation:
WHAT ROLE FOR FOREIGNERS?
by Matthew Aho

U.S.

sporting-goods entrepreneur Douglas Tompkins first fell in love

with Patagonia as a teenager on backpacking trips. Today, he is one of Latin America’s largest private landowners, controlling an estimated 2 million acres (800,000 hectares) straddling Argentina and Chile at the tip of the continent.

However, the 66-year-old New York native, who founded the North Face and Esprit clothing lines says he is willing to hand over title to his vast holdings to the Chilean and Argentine governments—but only with guarantees that the land will be turned into national parks and wildlife refuges.

ROBIN HAMMOND

Tompkins, in fact, purchased the land with that goal in mind, and he has already scored some major successes. In 2001, he secured an agreement with the Chilean government to turn Pumalín Park, a 700,000- acre (283,000 hectares) expanse of land into a nature reserve. He did the same for the Monte León National Park in Argentina and Corcovado National Park in Chile, both of which were created after Pumalín Park. Tompkins has been joined by others, including media mogul Ted Turner and financier and philanthropist George Soros who both made similar preservation-oriented purchases.

Entrepreneur and preservationist Douglas Tompkins at his ecological holdings.

Despite these successes, Tompkins has faced serious legal and political challenges. Critics in Argentina and Chile charge that the large tracks of land held in his name, combined with land owned by foundations he controls, violate national sovereignty and threaten economic development—as well as indigenous rights in Patagonia. In 2006, then-Argentine Congresswoman Araceli Méndez sponsored legislation that would expropriate Tompkins’ land. She said his purchases were “…a new way of trying to dominate South American countries.” Her views are shared by others, including the Catholic Church and the Mothers of the

Plaza de Mayo as well as Luis D’Elia, Argentina’s undersecretary for land and social habitats who argues that the government, rather than rich foreigners, should decide on land use. Chilean legislators have threatened him with deportation.

The firestorm of criticism makes clear that sensitivities created by memories of colonialism and lingering suspicions of foreigners can stymie even the most well-intentioned plans. The question is whether Tompkins and his fellow “landowners with a conscience” can overcome them to forge an ecology movement that is shared by North and South alike.