Thirty-five years ago, the founder of North Face bought millions of acres in Chile, leading to the largest private land donation in history

By Natalia Senanayake

Decades ago, the founder of the clothing brand The North Face began acquiring land in Chile with his wife. Their passionate conservation efforts led to the largest private land donation in history and created several national parks.

Douglas and Kristine Tompkins in Chile. (Credit: Tompkins Conservation)

After launching his clothing company with a single store in San Francisco back in 1966, Douglas Tompkins decided to leave the business world in 1990 and move to South America’s Patagonia region to focus what he called “paying rent for his time on the planet,” according to his non-profit organization Tompkins Conservation.

After his wife, Kristine Tompkins, joined him on his conservation mission in the early ‘90s, the couple acquired about 2.2 million acres of land through charitable organizations they founded together.

This land included Pumalín Park in southern Chile, which was later renamed Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park in 2018 and is referred to as the “world’s largest private nature reserve,” according to the non-profit.

In 2015, Douglas died in a kayaking accident at age 72 while traveling along Lago General Carrera in Chilean Patagonia. Honoring her husband’s legacy and the work they carried out together, Kristine decided to donate the land they acquired to the government of Chile.

In 2017, Kristine opened up to NPR about her decision to donate one million acres of land with the goal of transforming it into national parks.

Pumalin-Douglas Tompkins National Park. (Credit: Getty)

“We grew up within the national parks here in the United States. And there is a sense of, I would even say, ownership by every American who goes through the front gates of Yellowstone or Yosemite, that those are public parks. They belong to everybody. And Chile is no different,” she said at the time.

Kristine continued, “We hope that somehow between the creation of national parks, the development of what we call economic development as a consequence of conservation, that precious masterpieces of the country will be preserved forever.”

In 2019, Kristine handed over the Pumalín and Patagonia Parks to the Chilean government, which officially concluded “the largest private land donation in history,” according to a release from Tompkins Conservation at the time. The historic moment was commemorated in a ceremony at Pumalín Douglas Tompkins Park.

More than a decade after her husband’s death, Kristine has continued her environmental activism.

According to a January 2025 report from NPR, the couple helped create 15 national parks between Chile and Argentina, as well as two marine parks in both countries. As a result, their work has reportedly protected 14.8 million acres of land and 30 million acres of ocean.
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Credit: People