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Douglas Tompkins (born 1943 in Ohio) is an American environmentalist, prominent landowner,conservationist and a former businessman.

Tompkins co-founded and ran two clothing companies: the outdoor clothing company The North Face; andwith his then-wife Susie, the ESPRIT clothing company. Since leaving the business world in 1989, Tompkinshas dedicated himself to environmental activism and land conservation. Along with his wife, Kristine

Tompkins, he has conserved over 2 million acres (8,100 km2) of wilderness in Chile and Argentina, more

than any other private individual.[1] Together, the two have focused Tompkins Conservation(http://www.tompkinsconservation.org/home.htm) on Park Creation (http://www.tompkinsconservation.org/park_creation.htm), Restoration (http://www.tompkinsconservation.org/wildlife_recovery.htm), EcologicalAgriculture (http://www.tompkinsconservation.org/ecological_agriculture.htm) and Activism(http://www.tompkinsconservation.org/activism.htm), with the overarching goal of saving biodiversity(http://www.tompkinsconservation.org/vision_and_values.htm) while leading others to do the same.

1 Early life

2 The North Face Company

3 Outdoor Adventure

4 Esprit

5 Land Conservation

6 Pumalin Park

7 Corcovado National Park

8 The Iberá Project

9 Other Conservation Projects

10 Ecological Restoration

11 Organic Agriculture

12 Environmental Activism

13 Recognition

14 See also

15 References

16 External links

Tompkins was born in Ohio on March 20, 1943, the son of an antiques dealer and decorator. He spent thefirst few years of his life in New York City before his family moved to Millbrook, New York. He graduatedfrom Indian Mountain School, a pre-prep school in Lakeville, CT, in 1957. In his senior year at Pomfret

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School in Connecticut, Tompkins was expelled for various minor infractions. He returned to his hometown inMillbrook, but did not graduate from high school.

Tompkins spent the years between 1960 and 1962 ski racing and rock climbing in Colorado, Europe and

South America. In 1963, Tompkins founded the California Mountaineering Guide Service.[2] It was duringthis time he met Susie, who would later become his wife, while hitch-hiking in California.

In 1964, Tompkins and his wife started The North Face as a mail order and retail company, selling rockclimbing and camping equipment. The early years set the design standard of good quality sleeping bags,backpacks, and mountaineering tents. Around 1966, Tompkins and his partner designed The North Facetents that were some of the first to avoid a pole in the middle, by using bendable rods that push out in theirsleeves instead. This design also increased the strength of the tent because the domed shape allowed thewind to roll over the tents. These tents were widely copied throughout the world. In 1969, Tompkins soldThe North Face to focus on adventure film making.

In 1968, Tompkins headed off on a six month road/ adventure trip from California to Patagonia, along withYvon Chouinard and two other climbing friends. They put up a new route on Mount Fitzroy, and made anadventure film, Mountain of Storms, about their experience. The 2010 film 180 Degrees South: Conquerorsof the Useless describes a modern-day recreation of this journey.

"Rebel With A Cause" Doug Tompkins ́quest to save the wilderness - 2010 - A film by DreamTeammedienproduktion, arte, WDR, NDR 2010

Tompkins also became a skilled whitewater kayaker, claiming first descents of rivers in California, Africa,and South America.

In addition, he is a skilled bush pilot.

In 1968, Tompkins and his wife, Susie, and her friend Jane Tise began selling girls' dresses out of the back ofa VW bus; in 1971, they incorporated the booming business under the name "Plain Jane" which later became

ESPRIT.[3] By 1978, sales topped $100 million a year, and the company had formed partnerships inGermany and Hong Kong. Tompkins titled himself "image director", overseeing all aspects of the company'simage, from store design to catalog layout, while his wife served as design director. Emerging as one of thehottest brands of the era, the company grew into a transnational company operating in 60 countries. At thesame time, the company developed a reputation as a good place to work. In 1989, the Japanese art publisherRobundo published “Esprit, the Comprehensive Design Principle," which documented the all-encompassing

design principles that Tompkins had created for the brand.[3]

Growing increasingly concerned about the ecological impacts of the fashion industry, Tompkins decided toleave the business world in the late 1980s. In 1989, he sold his share of the American company back to

Susie, from whom he had separated, putting most of his profits into land conservation.[4] Subsequently, in1989 and 1994, he sold his interests in the other Esprit entities around the world.


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After selling his interest in Esprit, Tompkins moved to south Chile, where he had spent much time climbing,kayaking, and skiing, to devote himself to land conservation and environmental activism. He founded theFoundation for Deep Ecology (http://www.deepecology.org/history.htm) in 1990, which supportsenvironmental activism, and The Conservation Land Trust in 1992, which works to protect wildlands,primarily in Chile and Argentina.

In 1993, he married Kristine Tompkins; since then the two have worked together on their conservationprojects.

The Tompkins' conservation efforts focus on preserving wild landscapes and biodiversity. After purchasinglarge blocks of wilderness, they work to create national parks, believing that this governmental designationserves as the best mode of guaranteeing long-term conservation.

Tompkins's first major conservation project was Pumalín Park in the Palena Province of Chile, an

800,000-acre (3,200 km2) area of Valdivian temperate rainforest, high peaks, lakes, and rivers. In 1991, hebought the Reñihué farm, a semi-abandoned farm at the end of the Reñihué Fjord, planning to set aside

42,000 acres (170 km2) of this unique forest from possible exploitation. In the next decade, The

Conservation Land Trust added another 700,000 acres (2,800 km2) in nearly contiguous parcels to createPumalín Park. In 2005, then-President Ricardo Lagos declared this area a Nature Sanctuary, a specialdesignation of the Chilean State, granting it additional environmental and non developmental protection. TheConservation Land Trust (a U.S. environmental foundation) has donated these protected lands to FundaciónPumalín (a Chilean foundation), for their administration and continual development as a type of National

Park with public access under a private initiative.[5] Through creating public-access infrastructure, includingtrails, campgrounds, visitor centers, and a restaurant, Tompkins seeks to promote wilderness experience, inhopes of inspiring a deeper environmental ethic in the park's many thousands of visitors. Although theproject initially provoked controversy—largely because this type of private conservation philanthropy was

previously unheard of in Chile—the park continues to gain the support of locals and visitors alike.[5]

Just to the south of Pumalin, Corcovado National Park (Chile) represents one of Tompkins' completedconservation projects. In 1994 The Conservation Land Trust, along with U.S. philanthropist Peter Buckley,

acquired 208,000 acres (840 km2) of native forest that was slated for logging, adjacent to vast areas offederal land, under the jurisdiction of the Chilean Armed Forces. CLT offered to donate this parcel back tothe Chilean state, provided that the whole area became a national park. In 2005, then-President Lagos

accepted this proposal, and the 726,000-acre (2,940 km2) Corcovado National Park was born.

The Iberá project is a private conservation enterprise spearheaded by Doug Tompkins, the biggest landowner

in the area together with billionaire George Soros and Harvard University[6] and the Conservation Land

Trust[7] (Tompkins enterprise) with a goal of expanding land ownership and strengthening protection for theexisting Iberá Wetlands natural preserve, in the Corrientes Province of Argentina. Since 1983, the IberáNatural Reserve has consisted of 553,000 hectares of protected floodplains, providing safe habitat for arange of native species, and encouraging a transition from an exploitative economy to an economy ofconservation and ecotourism. The Conservation Land Trust has acquired 150,000 hectares of old cattleranches bordering the existing natural reserve, lands which include habitats not currently represented in theexisting park. The goal is to donate these lands, including espinal, malezal grasslands, and forests, to the


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Argentine government to include in the reserve, creating a new strictly conserved park called the Great Iberá

Park. This new park, which would total 700,000 hectares, would be the largest national park in Argentina.[8]

Some other conservation projects that Tompkins has spearheaded are:

--the Melimoyu and Isla Magdalena conservation projects in coastal Chile

--the Yendegaia project in Chile's Tierra del Fuego

In addition to preserving pristine wilderness, Tompkins has worked to restore damaged landscapes andprotect threatened species. Ecological restoration has been a critical element of most of Tompkins'conservation projects, especially in the degraded grassland regions of Chile.

Envisioning "conservation as a consequence of production," Tompkins has developed models of sustainableorganic agriculture, which maintain soil health and ecological integrity at the same time that they provide forfamilies and support the local economy.

In the area around Pumalin, the Hornopiren, Vodudahue, Ventisquero, Pillan, and Reñihue farms serve asboth exemplars of small-scale ecological agriculture and as informal park ranger stations. Each of thesefarms produces a variety of products, including sheep, cattle, honey, berries, and organic vegetables. A smallfacility in the Pillan farm processes honey and berries for jams, which are sold under the name Pillan

Organics.[9]

In northeastern Argentina, Tompkins manages cattle ranches in Corrientes Province and polyculture grainand fruit farms in Entre Rios Province. Each farm pays close attention to developing sustainable practices.

Unlike many land conservationists, Tompkins has always been both a conservationist and environmentalactivist. Through his Foundation for Deep Ecology, he has published a series of large-format, photo activistbooks on various environmental issues. These include Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy, FatalHarvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of theAmerican West, and Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry. In addition, The Foundation for DeepEcology had a long history as a generous grant-maker in categories such as Biodiversity & Wilderness,Ecological Agriculture, and Megatechnology & Economic Globalization, although in-house publishing is nowits main focus. In addition, Tompkins has been involved in several large environmental campaigns in Chileand Argentina, such as the Chilean Patagonia Sin Represas campaign, which is opposing the construction of

five dams on two of Patagonia's largest and wildest rivers.[10]

Despite considerable controversy within Chile and Argentina, Tompkins' environmental work has won himrespect and accolades outside of South America: in 2012, the African Rainforest Conservancy awarded

Doug and wife Kris their "New Species Award;[11] in 2007, the International Conservation Caucus


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Foundation awarded their "Good Steward" award to him and his wife Kris;[12] in 2008, the American AlpineClub awarded him the David R. Brower Award in 2009, for his work preserving mountain regions; in 2009,

Latin Trade named him the "Environmental Leader of the Year."[13] In 2007, he was appointed as anhonorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, in recognition of his work restoring

damaged landscapes.[14] Eco Barons Edward Humes's 2009 account of the "dreamers, schemers, andmillionaires who are saving our planet," uses Tompkins as the first example of this new group of

philanthropists.[15]

Pumalín Park

Ted Turner, who likewise owns two million acres (8,000 km2) of land

Kristine Tompkins

^ [1] (http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/01/patagonia-grasslands-park.html)1.

^ The Conservation Land Trust2.

^ a b "company :: about us :: History" (http://www.esprit.com/index.php?command=Display&navi_id=51). E S

P R I T. 2010-09-16. Retrieved 2012-08-03.

3.

^ Edward Humus, Eco Barons New York: Harper Collins, 20094.

^ a b "Parque Pumalín" (http://www.parquepumalin.cl/content/eng/index.htm). Parquepumalin.cl. Retrieved

2012-08-03.

5.

^ http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-236271-2013-12-23.html6.

^ "The Conservation Land Trust" (http://www.theconservationlandtrust.org/eng/mision_introduccion.htm).7.

^ "What is the great ibera park?" (http://proyectoibera.org/eng/parqueibera.htm).8.

^ "Pillan Organics - Chile" (http://www.pillanorganics.cl/esp/mermeladas.htm). Pillanorganics.cl. Retrieved

2012-08-03.

9.

^ "Página Principal Patagonia Chilena ¡Sin Represas!" (http://www.patagoniasinrepresas.cl/final/).

Patagoniasinrepresas.cl. Retrieved 2012-08-03.

10.

^ "Kris and Doug Tompkins receive the new - Species award from african rainforest conservancy"

(http://www.conservacionpatagonica.org/blog/2012/04/30/kris-and-doug-tompkins-receive-the-new-species-

award-from-african-rainforest-conservancy). Retrieved August 2, 2012.

11.

^ [2] (http://www.iccfoundation.us/2007Gala/DinnerProgram.pdf)12.

^ "Environmental Leader of the Year: Douglas Tompkins – Preserver of the Land" (http://latintrade.com

/2009/10/environmental-leader-of-the-year-douglas-tompkins-preserver-of-the-land). Latin Trade. 2009-10-01.

Retrieved 2012-08-03.

13.

^ "ASLA Names 13 New Honorary Members" (http://www.asla.org/NewslistingDetails.aspx?id=1838).

asla.org. 2007-05-01. Retrieved 2012-08-03.

14.

^ Edward Humes, Eco Barons (New York: Harper Collins, 2009)15.

Tompkins Conservation (http://www.tompkinsconservation.org/home.htm)


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Wikimedia Commons hasmedia related to DouglasTompkins.

Douglas Tompkins (http://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com/designers/douglas-tompkins/) at the

Fashion Model Directory

Spanish Language BBC interview (http://news.bbc.co.uk

/hi/spanish/specials/por_un_desarrollo_sostenible

/newsid_2236000/2236248.stm)

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