A significant part of the landscape on the mainland side of the Chiloe area has gone through a transformation in the last several decades. Douglas Tompkins, the founder of The North Face and a former owner of Esprit, used the proceeds from his considerable business successes to purchase huge tracts of land in southern Chile.
With a goal of conserving the spectacularly beautiful landscapes and restoring the native flora and fauna, his foundation Tompkins Conservation sold off the existing livestock, removed many miles of fencing, and began a process with an end goal of turning the land into parks.
Originally met with skepticism from both the government (is it wise for a foreigner to own enough land to split the country in half?) and local people (sure he says it’s for a park, but he can’t really mean it), the project has eventually largely been embraced. The vast majority of the privately acquired land has now been turned over to the government of Chile, who has in turn contributed some of it’s own land holdings to form a string of current and future national parks.
Our anchorage of Bahia Tic Toc lies at the entrance of Corcovado National Park, one of the tracts donated jointly by Chile and Tompkins Conservation, and we’re thankful that this part of the world will be preserved in its natural state.
