Accord for private nature preserve signed in Chile

U.S. entrepreneur Douglas Tompkins’ dogged effort to create the world’s largest privately owned nature park in southern Chile is bearing fruit. Under an agreement signed with the Chilean government this month, Tompkins’ Pumalin Park will be declared a Nature Sanctuary. As part of the agreement, Tompkins must submit his plans for environmental-impact assessment, wherein public comment will be solicited, and must set up a Chilean foundation to manage the park. Tompkins, former co-owner of the San Francisco, California-based Esprit women’s-clothing chain, has spent at least $30 million on the park since 1991. He is reportedly Chile’s largest individual landowner with 894,957 acres (362,180 hectares) in Region 10’s Palena province. The park is a dramatic expanse of snow-capped volcanoes, mountains... [Log in to read more]

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