Douglas Tompkins
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"In the 1990s Tompkins and his second wife, Kris McDivitt Tompkins bought and conserved more than 2 million acres (810,000 ha) of wilderness in Chile and Argentina, exceeding that of any other private individuals in the region, thus becoming among the largest private land-owners in the world. The Tompkinses were focused on park creation, wildlife recovery, ecological agriculture, and activism, with the goal of saving biodiversity."--Sholem Stein |
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Douglas Rainsford Tompkins (March 20, 1943 – December 8, 2015) was an American conservationist, outdoorsman, philanthropist, filmmaker, agriculturalist, and businessman who assembled and preserved the land which became the largest gift of private land to any South American government.
Beginning in the mid-1960s, he and Susie Tompkins Buell, his first wife, co-founded and ran two companies: the outdoor equipment and clothing company The North Face and the Esprit clothing company. Following their divorce and Tompkins' departure from the business world in 1989, he became active in environmental and land conservation causes.
In the 1990s Tompkins and his second wife, Kris McDivitt Tompkins bought and conserved more than 2 million acres (810,000 ha) of wilderness in Chile and Argentina, exceeding that of any other private individuals in the region, thus becoming among the largest private land-owners in the world. The Tompkinses were focused on park creation, wildlife recovery, ecological agriculture, and activism, with the goal of saving biodiversity.
Land conservation
After selling his interest in Esprit, Tompkins turned his efforts toward southern Chile, where he had spent much time climbing, kayaking, and skiing, to focus on land conservation and environmental activism. He founded the Foundation for Deep Ecology in 1990, which supports environmental activism (see deep ecology), and The Conservation Land Trust in 1992, which works to protect wildlands, primarily in Chile and Argentina.
In 1993, he married Kristine L. McDivitt, a former chief executive of the Patagonia retail chain; the two worked together on conservation projects. The Tompkinses' conservation efforts focused on preserving wild landscapes and biodiversity. After purchasing large blocks of wilderness, they worked to create national parks, believing that this governmental designation serves as the best mode of guaranteeing long-term conservation.
