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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; and
with his then-wife Susie, the ESPRIT clothing company. Since leaving the business world in 1989, Tompkins
has dedicated himself to environmental activism and land conservation. Along with his wife, Kristine
Tompkins, he has conserved over 2 million acres (8,100 km
2
) 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), Ecological
Agriculture (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 Iber 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 the
first few years of his life in New York City before his family moved to Millbrook, New York. He graduated
from 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 in
Millbrook, 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 during
this 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 rock
climbing 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 Face
tents that were some of the first to avoid a pole in the middle, by using bendable rods that push out in their
sleeves instead. This design also increased the strength of the tent because the domed shape allowed the
wind to roll over the tents. These tents were widely copied throughout the world. In 1969, Tompkins sold
The 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 with
Yvon Chouinard and two other climbing friends. They put up a new route on Mount Fitzroy, and made an
adventure film, Mountain of Storms, about their experience. The 2010 film 180 Degrees South: Conquerors
of 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 DreamTeam
medienproduktion, 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 of
a 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 in
Germany and Hong Kong. Tompkins titled himself "image director", overseeing all aspects of the company's
image, from store design to catalog layout, while his wife served as design director. Emerging as one of the
hottest brands of the era, the company grew into a transnational company operating in 60 countries. At the
same time, the company developed a reputation as a good place to work. In 1989, the Japanese art publisher
Robundo 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 to
leave 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, in
1989 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 the
Foundation for Deep Ecology (http://www.deepecology.org/history.htm) in 1990, which supports
environmental 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 conservation
projects.
The Tompkins' conservation efforts focus on preserving wild landscapes and biodiversity. After purchasing
large blocks of wilderness, they work to create national parks, believing that this governmental designation
serves as the best mode of guaranteeing long-term conservation.
Tompkins's first major conservation project was Pumaln Park in the Palena Province of Chile, an
800,000-acre (3,200 km
2
) area of Valdivian temperate rainforest, high peaks, lakes, and rivers. In 1991, he
bought the Reihu farm, a semi-abandoned farm at the end of the Reihu Fjord, planning to set aside
42,000 acres (170 km
2
) of this unique forest from possible exploitation. In the next decade, The
Conservation Land Trust added another 700,000 acres (2,800 km
2
) in nearly contiguous parcels to create
Pumaln Park. In 2005, then-President Ricardo Lagos declared this area a Nature Sanctuary, a special
designation of the Chilean State, granting it additional environmental and non developmental protection. The
Conservation Land Trust (a U.S. environmental foundation) has donated these protected lands to Fundacin
Pumaln (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, including
trails, campgrounds, visitor centers, and a restaurant, Tompkins seeks to promote wilderness experience, in
hopes of inspiring a deeper environmental ethic in the park's many thousands of visitors. Although the
project initially provoked controversylargely because this type of private conservation philanthropy was
previously unheard of in Chilethe 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' completed
conservation projects. In 1994 The Conservation Land Trust, along with U.S. philanthropist Peter Buckley,
acquired 208,000 acres (840 km
2
) of native forest that was slated for logging, adjacent to vast areas of
federal land, under the jurisdiction of the Chilean Armed Forces. CLT offered to donate this parcel back to
the 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 km
2
) Corcovado National Park was born.
The Iber 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 the
existing Iber Wetlands natural preserve, in the Corrientes Province of Argentina. Since 1983, the Iber
Natural Reserve has consisted of 553,000 hectares of protected floodplains, providing safe habitat for a
range of native species, and encouraging a transition from an exploitative economy to an economy of
conservation and ecotourism. The Conservation Land Trust has acquired 150,000 hectares of old cattle
ranches bordering the existing natural reserve, lands which include habitats not currently represented in the
existing 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 Iber
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 and
protect 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 sustainable
organic agriculture, which maintain soil health and ecological integrity at the same time that they provide for
families and support the local economy.
In the area around Pumalin, the Hornopiren, Vodudahue, Ventisquero, Pillan, and Reihue farms serve as
both exemplars of small-scale ecological agriculture and as informal park ranger stations. Each of these
farms produces a variety of products, including sheep, cattle, honey, berries, and organic vegetables. A small
facility 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 grain
and 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 environmental
activist. Through his Foundation for Deep Ecology, he has published a series of large-format, photo activist
books on various environmental issues. These include Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy, Fatal
Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the
American West, and Clearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry. In addition, The Foundation for Deep
Ecology 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 now
its main focus. In addition, Tompkins has been involved in several large environmental campaigns in Chile
and 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 him
respect 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 Alpine
Club 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 an
honorary 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, and
millionaires who are saving our planet," uses Tompkins as the first example of this new group of
philanthropists.
[15]
Pumaln Park
Ted Turner, who likewise owns two million acres (8,000 km
2
) of land
Kristine Tompkins
^ [1] (http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/news/chiefeditor/2010/01/patagonia-grasslands-park.html) 1.
^ The Conservation Land Trust 2.
^
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, 2009 4.
^
a

b
"Parque Pumaln" (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.html 6.
^ "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.
^ "Pgina 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 fromafrican 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 has
media related to Douglas
Tompkins.
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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Categories: American environmentalists American conservationists 1943 births Living people
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