In the rain-soaked forests of southern Chile there are trees that were saplings at the dawn of the Iron Age. One area resident is an eco-philanthropist who is using his personal fortune to buy up wilderness areas. Eco-philanthropists have lost faith in governments to fulfil their international conservation commitments. Is this altruism or what some local people claim, a new kind of colonialism with a wealthy man taking advantage of a poorer nation to buy up cheap land? This week's Earth Report examines these claims and tells the story of Pumalin Park, the largest privately-owned nature reserve in the world.

Natural Chile

In the far south of Chile, around the 40 degree parallel, one third of the world's last temperate rainforests still survives. This land is home to pumas and hummingbirds, and in the narrow fjords, seals, dolphins and wild salmon swim in the icy glacier fed peppermint-coloured waters.

Native forest cover has been reduced by almost 50% since the arrival of the first Europeans. As in the rest of Latin America, this process has accelerated rapidly over the past 30 years.

But in the Province of Palena, an American millionaire, Douglas Tompkins, has been buying up forest, over 300 thousand hectares of it. At first glance it may seem like yet another case of resource exploitation, but Douglas and his wife Kris say they are not developing, but conserving the land, and their nature reserve is almost complete.

But just who is this man behind the fortune?

Douglas Tompkins made his wealth with the successful Esprit and North Face clothing empires. After selling the last of his clothing business to his ex-wife in San Francisco in the late 1980s, he was ready to embark upon something new.

His dreams of being an Olympic skier first brought him to Chile as a teenager and when he later heard from a friend about the large areas of pristine Chilean forest, Doug intended to return. He bought a farm in the area and soon got the idea of protecting land by buying it up as it became available.

The Disappearance of the Chilean Forests

Less than half of our planet's forests are still pristine, meaning relatively undisturbed. Where they grow in tracts of 5,000 hectares or more, they qualify as "frontier" forests and only 3% of these grow in the cooler climes of temperate zones such as Chile or Tasmania. The greatest losses of Chile's native forests have occurred in the central southern region.

A study by the Forestry Corporation, CONAF, in this area showed that 25,000 hectares were lost in just four years. Over half was converted into tree plantations. But the Forestry Corporation seems reluctant to acknowledge its own figures. They say conservation measures have meant that even with an increase in plantations with exotic species, native forests haven't been lost.

The economic benefits of Latin America's natural resources have been fully exploited since the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors, and timber has been one of the great prizes. When the first German settlers reached Lake Llanquihue by ox-cart in 1852 and founded Puerto Varas, they set about felling all the ancient alerce forests along the valley between the coast and the lakes.

The alerce is a conifer that can live to 3,500 years old and it's virtually indestructible. The settlers used its wood to build just about everything they needed and at one time the traditional tiles were even used as currency. The alerce was, in fact, the basis of the local economy. The wooden houses of Puerto Varas or Puerto Montt on the coast, bear witness to the legacy of the great forests which once grew here and the wealth they created for the early inhabitants.

When General Pinochet seized power in the coup of 1973, his regime enthusiastically adopted free market policies, and state-owned forests were privatised and forestry firms were offered tax breaks and handsome subsidies - 75% of the costs - to replace native forests with tree plantations. Conservation was definitely not on the agenda. These subsidies and tax exemptions have remained in place ever since and forestry products now represent 10% of Chilean exports.

De-forestation has particularly affected the Mapuche people. Their ancestral lands have been transformed in just two generations. Mapuche small-holders like Ruperto Ramos now have a very different landscape to deal with than their fathers and grandfathers.

Where the ancient forests have been clear-cut, plantations of pine and eucalyptus have replaced them. After 15 to 20 years, these are "harvested" and exported, some of them in the form of wood chips which go mainly to Japan for making fax and wrapping paper. The "chip mountain" in the harbour of Puerto Montt is a reminder of Chile's generosity with its natural resources. People have only recently begun to listen to critics of the "Chilean miracle" when they point to its huge environmental cost.

Less than 30% of Chile's "frontier" forests are officially protected, so the value of private nature reserves such as Pumalin is starting to be appreciated.

The Controversial Park

Since leaving his clothing business behind, Tompkins has been using his fortune to promote the ideals of his "deep ecology" foundation in San Francisco. The first piece of land he helped to buy was a remnant of the araucaria or monkey puzzle forest, trees that were around at the time of the dinosaurs.

Then, in 1992, Tompkins and his wife Kris founded the Conservation Land Trust which, for the past decade, has been buying up tracts of wilderness in Chile and Argentina. Named for the pumas inhabiting the area, Pumalin Park is huge, about the size of California's Yosemite National Park. Most of its tiny centres and model camping sites can only be reached by boat, but despite its inaccessibility, the park has received about 50,000 visitors over the years who find its beauty spell-binding.

But the park and its millionaire owner have provoked some ferocious criticism. The mayor of a local village has a difficult time accepting foreign land ownership and sees that it only slows down development that could create financial benefits locally.

More serious charges concern claims that Tompkins forcefully evicted local settlers, many of indigenous origin. However, a fence maker in Pumalin Park disagrees, saying everyone had the choice whether or not to sell their land.

Tompkins believes that there will always be pro-development people refusing to accept conservation measures. He says it's an expected consequence of necessary actions. On the question of pressure on local people, it really depends who you talk to. What is visible is the regeneration of small local farms, though indigenous farmers seem under-represented.

Another part of the Park project is the produce-marketing and honey-production centre which are using the forest resources without having to fell trees. The organic produce grown on the farms is sold locally and consumed in the Park's restaurant.

Unfriendly Neighbours

Since the Park runs from the Ocean on the one side to the Argentinean border on the other, following the border for 65 kilometres in places, Pumalin Park literally cuts Chile in two. When a further large piece of land running through the middle of Pumalin Park became available in 1997, all the stops were pulled out to prevent the American millionaire from buying it. Eventually this land was purchased by ENDESA, the Spanish-Chilean energy giant who have set up a foundation for environmental research - a new departure for an energy corporation.

The energy company set up the Huinay Foundation, together with The Catholic University of Valparaíso, the oringial owner of the land. The foundation was created to work on research, education, and other environmental projects in the area.

Tompkins however, believes it was a case of a corporation acting for the wrong reasons, just to gain the favour of government. He says, "I think we're arriving at the first serious critiques now of capitalism which is fundamentally the engine that is driving this crisis. It's driving not just the environmental crisis, but the crisis of culture and the crisis of society, certainly unfettered capitalism as we have it now - is driving the world off the abyss."

Pumalin, the Saviour of Chile's Forests?

Although Pumalin Park is privately-owned and created mainly to ensure conservation, tourism of a thoughtful kind is encouraged and Tompkins sub-contracts the adventure tourism activities. Tourism is growing in Chile and even the most enthusiastic free-marketeers are beginning to realise that there might be more money to be made by keeping the relics of Chile's old growth forests.

Pumalin is a show-case park where each new area is carefully restored and renovated and money is no object. Tompkins' hand is everywhere - there's even a shade of paint called "Tompkins' green" which matches the forests.

So, is Pumalin a rich man's whim or a key development in the internationally agreed target of reserving one tenth of the world's land surfaces for protection?

As the critics fall away, Tompkins seems to be viewed these days as an increasingly enlightened monarch. He has pledged to hand Pumalin over, through a Chilean foundation, to the National Parks System once he has completed the project.

With its tourist facilities, shops and land restoration, Pumalin Park and its subsidiary companies are now the largest employers in the province. So, is buying up wildernesses the right way to achieve the conservation of our biodiversity?

Kris Tompkins thinks it is. "First of all, we believe that, in a perfect world, we would hope that all conservation efforts are public conservation efforts. That would be wonderful. But that's not the case today. And so we think then, take it into your own hands, to the extent that anybody can...Whether it's 4 acres or 4 million acres is really not the point. The point is, I think, that we have to participate and share the responsibility for protecting wild nature - to the extent that anyone can."

Local Mayor Fritis disagrees. "As far as we're concerned, when Mr. Tompkins, or any other foreigner, buys up land large areas of land in our territory, it's because there's some business deal involved! Yesterday it was copper or oil. Today the biggest money-maker is environmental conservation."

Doug contends that it's not an issue of profits. "Conservation doesn't work any where unless you have a lot of people who love the place that they're working in. It just doesn't happen. It's as simple as that. Love and commitment. It's like getting married."

Good intentions aside, much work needs to be done to convince doubters that Pumalin Park and Chilean forest conservation is a match made in heaven.