Douglas Tompkins

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Douglas Tompkins (born 1943 in New York) is an American environmentalist and a former businessman.

For a long time, Tompkins was the co-owner, with his wife Susie, of the ESPRIT clothing company. The couple divorced in 1989 and Tompkins sold it in 1990 and decided to focus his investments in the protection of nature. His first project was in Canada and he has since created reserves in Argentina and Chile. They have two daughters, Summer and Quincy.

He focuses on securing large, ecologically strategic terrains (usually big water reserves) and trying to recover undeveloped and untrammeled nature. Afterwards, he legally assures the irreversibility of this procedure and donates the lands to the administrations of national parks. The idea behind this is that national treasures are best preserved if not privatized.

Today, Tompkins owns lands principally in three areas: southern Chile (Pumalín Park, Valle Chacabuco), southern Argentina (the Santa Cruz River Basin), and northeastern Argentina (Esteros del Iberá in the Corrientes Province). His total land holdings are estimated to be around 800.000 hectares, making him one of the top private land owners in the world. His land is primarily dedicated to conservation, consisting of mountain ridges, swamps, rainforests, pastures, rivers, and wide steppes.

Tompkins has had political conflicts with rural workers in the lands he has bought. Some have accused Tompkins of mistreating workers who squat on and refuse to leave their lands, especially in the Esteros del Iberá area. Such activities have also been reported in the hamlet of Huinay, which divides the Pumalín Park in two and which Tompkins is attempting to buy in order to unite his park. Likewise, Pumalin divides Chile in two, making Chilean nationalists nervous.

For his part, the deep ecologist is in conflict with large businesses, especially foresting businesses, which he sees as threats to biological diversity and healty ecosystems. Tompkins is one of the prime examples of conversion away from consumption towards conservation.