Esprit Founder Preserves an 800,000 Acre Park in Chile
10/1/97
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Esprit Founder Preserves an 800,000 Acre Park in Chile
Source: Earth Action Network
Date: 10/1/97
Author: James Langman
Copyright: 1997, Earth Action Network
Updated by webmaster@emagazine.com
http://www.emagazine.com/0997curr_esprit.html
Thinking Big
After Founding Esprit and North Face, Doug Tompkins Dresses Up an 800,000-
Acre Park
When Esprit founder Doug Tompkins went on a rainforest
exploration trip to Chile seven years ago, he didn't realize
he'd soon be buying huge swaths of land down there, or that his
growing passion for preservation would stir controversy all
over the South American nation.
Tompkins was invited to study Chile's endangered alerce tree by Rick
Klein, the director of Ancient Forests International. Their explorations
in southern Chile took them to the Palena province, where the vast
wilderness geography of dense rainforests, mountains with towering granite
walls, clear blue-green lakes and lagoons and fjordal coastline was an
easy sell. Tompkins bought an abandoned, forested ranch at a place called
Renihue, and then didn't stop until, after four years, he had managed to
acquire almost 800,000 acres.
The former clothing mogul has spent more than $10 million on
"Pumalin Park," the largest privately-owned nature preserve in
the world. Tompkins has been working to get the land declared a
nature sanctuary by the government, and he wants to then donate
it to a Chilean foundation, which would manage it. It's an
altruistic plan, but it has stirred great controversy in Chile.
In a May press conference this year, Tompkins and his attorney,
accompanied by leaders of Chile's largest environmental groups,
presented information to counter a "harassment campaign" they
say is being waged by the government. Among the numerous false
accusations, they say, are rumors that Tompkins is pressuring
locals to sell their land, building a nuclear base, planning a
Jewish colony, developing a secret gold mine and financing
political opposition.
Tompkins says that his phone is tapped, and that his life has
been threatened by a group of Chilean Nazis. "My wife and I are
nervous about this," Tompkins says. "All over the world there
are loonies running around, but this is the first time they're
directed at me."
Chile's Minister of Interior, Belasario Velasco, who many say
is orchestrating government opposition to the project, denies
the charge. "Nobody in the government is harassing or
persecuting Mr. Tompkins," he says. But Velasco and other
government officials have publicly warned that the park, which
extends from the Argentinian border to the Pacific coast, is a
potential threat to national security because it cuts the
country in half. Chile set up a governmental commission in July
1995 to study the Pumalin Park proposal, but has not decided on
granting it nature sanctuary status.
Adriana Delpiano, Chile's Minister of National Property, says
Chile doesn't want to be told what to do with its land. "Chile
already has 2.5 million acres of national parks, and we don't
need any more," she says. "Tompkins owns 50 percent of Palena
province, land that could be used for development." Delpiano
says the government is considering a law to limit the amount of
land foreigners can buy.
Tompkins says Delpiano's statement is typical governmental
exaggeration. "I own only 19 percent of the province," he says,
"and much of it is undevelopable high mountains and forests."
Tompkins believes the government's opposition may be due to the
way he thinks. "I have heard over and over again from many
sources that my interest in deep ecology and environmental
ethics represents a type of ideological threat. Deep ecology is
misunderstood in Chile and grossly distorted."
Alejandro Navarro, a Chilean parliamentarian and member of a group of
Chilean politicians dubbed the "Green Bench," says that the government of
President Eduardo Frei is "erratic and contradictory." Elected officials
criticize the Pumalin project, he says, but go out of their way to support
large-scale foreign logging projects, such as the U.S.-based Trillium
company's plans for Tierra del Fuego.
Adriana Hoffmann, national coordinator of Defenders of the
Chilean Forests, Chile's largest forest protection group, says,
"Doug Tompkins is doing the country and the planet a favor. It
is urgent that we preserve biodiversity, old-growth forests and
the natural beauty of Chile." The project also has support from
U.S. environmental groups. Brent Blackwelder, president of
Friends of the Earth, enthuses, "Thank God someone is
exercising stewardship to preserve a little bit of what is left
of the world's frontier forest."
Chile's free-market economy is 90 percent based on the export
of natural resources. According to a 1995 Central Bank of Chile
report, unless current destructive patterns are reversed all of
Chile's private native forests will be stripped in 20 years.
Hoffmann says these forests are primarily wasted on wood chip
exports, while studies point to potential higher long-term
revenue from sustainably managing the forests for value-added
products such as furniture, or preserving it for ecotourism.
While the forests of Chile are threatened, Pumalin Park
preserves an estimated 35 percent of the remaining alerce trees
in Chile. The alerce, called the "redwood of the Andes" because
of its giant size, is one of the oldest species on the planet,
ranging up to 4,000 years old. The alerce trees are protected
as a Chilean national monument, but are still endangered
because of illegal logging.
Despite political opposition to the Pumalin Park, Tompkins'
team is making steady progress. Pumalin will be a combination
of protected forest and wilderness areas, sitting alongside
productive agricultural land. Eight demonstration sustainable
agriculture farms are being set up adjacent to the park in its
eight principal watersheds. Local farmers will double as the
park rangers.
Tompkins says that Pumalin is on an eight-year completion
schedule. He is spending more time in Chile than he had
originally imagined, nearly nine months a year, and has made
enormous progress. Abandoned farms have been restored, camping
facilities and visitor centers built, and three of the
demonstration farms up and running. He plans to have five fully
operating by 1999.
Tompkins is slowly winning the hearts and minds of Chileans.
"It is an uphill battle to convince the people and Chilean
government that caring for soil, water, forests and marine
ecology is essential for sustainable development," he says.
CONTACT:
Ancient Forests International
PO Box 1850
Redway, CA 95560
Tel: (707) 923-3015
Defenders of the Chilean Forests
A Lopez de Bello 024
Bellavista, Santiago, Chile
Tel: (011) 562-7374280