Activists, advocates, biologists and builders... the people of Tompkins Conservation—founded by Kristine and the late Douglas Tompkins (1943–2015), business leaders from Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit—are working to confront the twin crises facing life on Earth: climate chaos and collapsing ecosystems.
More than a quarter century ago, we committed ourselves to working on the ground in the Southern Cone of South America. From northern Argentina to southern Chile, you’ll find us creating landscape-scale conservation projects that focus on restoring an area’s full complement of native species.
CLT–Argentina rebrands as “Rewilding Argentina” and prepares to reintroduce jaguars and giant otters into the Iberá wetlands.
Three Tompkins-founded nonprofits—Foundation for Deep Ecology, Conservation Land Trust, and Conservacion Patagonica—are legally merged into a single entity, Tompkins Conservation. Tompkins Conservation transfers management of Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park and Patagonia National Park to the Chilean government.
Tompkins Conservation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Government of Chile announce an agreement to create an innovative fund—called “Route of Parks: Protecting Patagonia Forever”—to ensure the future conservation of the region’s national parks and strengthen the surrounding communities.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Kristine McDivitt Tompkins sign decrees to create a network of five new national parks in Chile and expand three others, adding a total of more than 10 million acres of new national parklands to Chile’s system of protected areas. A gift of roughly 1 million acres from Tompkins Conservation prompted the deal.
As part of the Chilean parklands deal, President Michelle Bachelet creates “Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park,” honoring the conservation legacy of Doug Tompkins.
Two jaguar cubs are born at the Jaguar captive breeding facility operated by Rewilding Argentina at Iberá Park. They are the first of their kind born in the region in decades.
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins meets with Pope Francis to discuss conservation, climate change, and the idea of fostering peace between humanity and the rest of our wild neighbors on Earth.
The Patagonia National Park Visitor Center and Museum opens to the public.
After a campaign by conservationists including Rewilding Argentina, the National Congress approves the creation of the country’s first two marine national parks. Culminating decades of work by Rewilding Argentina team members and other conservationists, the National Congress passes legislation creating Iberá National Park in Corrientes Province. With the adjacent Iberá Provincial Park, the combined 1.76-million-acre Iberá Park is the largest nature park in Argentina.
Kristine Tompkins is named the United Nations Environment Patron of Protected Areas.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and Kristine McDivitt Tompkins sign a pledge to dramatically expand Chile’s national parks through an unprecedented public-private partnership.
Chile’s Council of Ministers for Sustainability approves the creation of the Route of Parks of Patagonia, agreed to and signed by Kristine Tompkins and President Michelle Bachelet. The Route of Parks of Chilean Patagonia is a 1,700-mile scenic route that extends from Puerto Montt to Cape Horn encompassing 28 million acres of protected areas and 17 national parks.
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins receives the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, awarded for the first time to a nature-focused philanthropist.
Tompkins Conservation donates more than 103,000 acres for the future Iberá National Park in northern Argentina, the second major land donation for the park.
Kris Tompkins accepts the BBVA Foundation Award for Biodiversity Conservation in Latin America.
In Chile’s Chacabuco Valley, after a decade of concerted effort to restore the land, recover wildlife populations, and build public-access infrastructure, Patagonia Park is inaugurated.
Rewilding Argentina translocates ten collared peccaries for reintroduction at Iberá Park, hoping to reestablish a population of that native species, which had long been extirpated.
The Foundation for Deep Ecology (FDE) publishes Protecting the Wild, which explores the vital role of protected areas in fighting the extinction crisis.
FDE publishes the photo-format book Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot as centerpiece of the Global Population Speak Out, led by Population Media Center.
Following years of study, preparation, and construction, CLT–Argentina (now Rewilding Argentina) launches its effort to return jaguars to Iberá. A captive breeding enclosure for the big cats at San Alonso Reserve welcomes the first jaguars.
After being caught in a Patagonia storm while kayaking, Doug Tompkins dies of hypothermia, prompting an outpouring of media attention around the globe.
Fundación Yendegaia (one of the Tompkins philanthropies) donates 94,000 acres in Tierra del Fuego to be incorporated into the new Yendegaia National Park. The gift leverages adjacent government land, establishing a new protected area of roughly 370,000 acres.
Wildfires rip through 7,000 acres of Patagonia Park. Park staff and local officials collaborate to contain the blaze.
Following years of work by CLT–Argentina, the National Congress of Argentina votes unanimously to establish El Impenetrable National Park.
After seven years of opposition to proposed river-killing dams, the Patagonia Sin Represas campaign celebrates victory. Tompkins Conservation was a key strategic and funding partner for the campaign.
CLT publishes Perito Moreno National Park, a photo-format book celebrating the park’s expansion via a Tompkins land donation.
FDE publishes the multi-author volume Keeping the Wild in collaboration with Island Press.
CLT publishes Iberá: the Great Wetlands of Argentina, a photo-format book capturing the extraordinary biodiversity of the Iberá marshlands.
The National Congress of Argentina votes to create Patagonia National Park, which includes crucial habitat for the endangered hooded grebe, in Santa Cruz Province.
Doug Tompkins and the Conservation Land Trust donate roughly 37,000 acres to expand Argentina’s Perito Moreno National Park.
Pumalín Park’s new administrative office opens in El Amarillo, replacing the former visitors center and office that were closed when Chaitén was evacuated due to a volcanic eruption.
CLT–Argentina publishes Giant Anteater: A Homecoming to Corrientes, recounting the successful reintroduction of giant anteaters to the Iberá marshlands.
As part of a campaign to have Chile’s southern highway formally designated as a scenic road, The Carretera Austral: South America’s Most Spectacular Road is published.
FDE publishes ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth in partnership with Post Carbon Institute.
After years of work, Pumalín Park staff complete repairs to damaged park infrastructure resulting from the Chaitén Volcano eruption.
A guard dog program is launched to help ranchers near the future Patagonia National Park protect their livestock against predators.
Patagonia Park’s Westwinds Campground and Lagunas Altas and La Vega trails are completed.
A retrospective report on the first 20 years of Tompkins conservation work is published.
FDE publishes CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories to shine a spotlight on inhumane and ecologically destructive factory farms.
Construction begins of the trail system and first major campground at the future Patagonia National Park.
FDE publishes the book Plundering Appalachia: The Tragedy of Mountaintop-Removal Coal Mining, documenting the coal industry’s assault on Appalachia’s land and people.
An additional 21,000 acres for the future Patagonia National Park is purchased, and the park’s wildlife team initiates research on interaction between huemul deer and pumas.
CLT–Argentina’s rewilding team works to reestablish populations of giant anteaters and Pampas deer in the Iberá marshlands.
FDE publishes Wildlands Philanthropy, which celebrates natural areas saved by American conservationists using private funding and initiative.
In the heart of Pumalín Park, the Chaitén Volcano erupts, prompting evacuation of nearby communities; ash deposition and associated flooding cause extensive damage to park infrastructure.
Biologists with CLT–Argentina translocate giant anteaters to the Iberá marshlands, where they had been extirpated for decades.
FDE publishes Thrillcraft: The Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation to document the growing motorized assault on U.S. public lands.
With a coalition assembled to fight proposed dams in Patagonia, the Tompkins Conservation team produces the book Patagonia, Chilena ¡Sin Represas! (Patagonia, Chile, Without Dams!).
FDE publishes Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy, which promotes wildfire as a vital ecological agent in healthy ecosystems.
Fundación Pumalín, a Chilean nongovernmental organization, is incorporated to hold the land and manage Pumalín Park. President Ricardo Lagos visits Pumalín to dedicate it as an official Nature Sanctuary under Chilean law.
FDE publishes The Selected Works of Arne Naess, a ten-volume series collecting key writings of the Norwegian philosopher and father of deep ecology.
Our wildlife program in Patagonia National Park, Chile, launches with an aim to monitor and protect endemic species such as the huemul deer.
CLT and Peter Buckley donate property near the Corcovado Volcano to the Chilean people to become the heart of a new Corcovado National Park, protecting 730,000 acres.
| Kristine McDivitt Tompkins and Douglas Tompkins |
American conservationists Kristine McDivitt Tompkins and the late Douglas Tompkins (1943–2015) have achieved unprecedented success as national park-focused philanthropists. In more than a quarter-century of work to save wildlife and wild habitat, they and their Tompkins Conservation team—in partnership with governments and other philanthropists—have helped protect more than 14 million acres in Chile and Argentina. The Tompkinses’ record of accomplishment in landscape-scale conservation comes after successful careers in business, she as the former CEO of the Patagonia clothing company and he as the founder of The North Face and cofounder of Esprit clothing companies. After turning their entrepreneurial talents to saving nature, the couple developed numerous conservation and restoration projects, including a program that has reintroduced several regionally extinct species including giant anteaters and pampas deer to their native habitat. Under Kris Tompkins’s sole leadership since 2015, Tompkins Conservation has accelerated its pace of national park creation and expanded its organizational focus to include advocacy for marine protected areas. Widely lauded for their conservation philanthropy, Kris and Doug Tompkins are the recipients of many awards, and Kris was the first conservationist to be awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. In 2018 she was named the United Nations’ Global Patron for Protected Areas.
| Douglas Tompkins |
Douglas R. Tompkins (1943–2015) was a wilderness advocate, mountaineer, organic farmer, philanthropist, and conservationist. As the founder of The North Face and cofounder of the Esprit clothing company, he devoted his formidable energies to business. As a mountain climber and whitewater kayaker he completed first ascents and first river descents on multiple continents. After leaving business and endowing a group of family foundations, he became one of the foremost conservation philanthropists in history, using his wealth to acquire, aggregate, and then donate private land to the national park systems of Chile and Argentina. For decades he worked alongside his wife, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, to restore degraded farms and to establish large-scale protected areas. Deeply devoted to biocentric activism, Doug was a key funder and thinker behind numerous groups and campaigns, and his private farmlands helped to advance the frontiers of agroecological thinking and practice. He died in 2015 after a kayaking accident in Patagonia.
| Kristine McDivitt Tompkins |
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, former CEO of the Patagonia clothing company, is the cofounder and president of Tompkins Conservation. She was a key figure behind the establishment of Monte León National Park in Argentina and Patagonia National Park in Chile, as well as other conservation projects. For decades she also worked with her husband, Doug Tompkins, to model a new agroecological paradigm by operating organic farms and ranches in Chile and Argentina. She serves in various positions of global leadership in conservation, including as Chair of National Geographic Society’s Last Wild Places campaign. She received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2017 and was named the UN Environment Patron of Protected Areas in 2018.
Cofounder and President of Tompkins Conservation
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins is the cofounder and president of Tompkins Conservation and the UN Patron of Protected Areas. The former CEO of Patagonia, Inc, she has spent the last 27 years protecting and restoring Chile and Argentina’s wild beauty and biodiversity through creating national parks, restoring wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. A key figure behind the establishment of 11 national parks and two marine parks in Argentina and Chile, she has helped to protect approximately 14.2 million acres through Tompkins Conservation and its partners. Along with her late husband Douglas Tompkins, the visionary behind these conservation projects who passed away in 2015, she is considered one of the most successful national park–oriented philanthropists in history. In 2017, she received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. A global leader in conservation, she currently serves as Chair of National Geographic Society’s Last Wild Places campaign.
Rewilding Manager, Tompkins Conservation Chile
Cristián was born in Santiago but grew up primarily in Brazil until returning to Chile to study veterinary medicine at the University of Chile in Santiago. He oversees the wildlife recovery and monitoring programs in Patagonia National Park and helps manage the park’s community and institutional relations. He joined the team in 2005.
Director of Rewilding Argentina
Sofía has been on our team since 2005 and has led the coordination and strategic planning of numerous conservation and restoration programs, for which she’s established management policy with provincial and municipal governments. She received a degree in biological sciences from the Universidad C.A.E.C.E. in Buenos Aires.
Conservation Director, Rewilding Argentina
Since 2015, Sebastián has been the conservation director of Rewilding Argentina (formerly known as CLT-Argentina). He is in charge of the restoration of species and environments in Iberá Park, El Impenetrable National Park, and Patagonia Park. He is a biologist and previously directed provincial protected areas for the government of the province of Neuquén.
Executive Director, Tompkins Conservation Chile
Born in Santiago, Carolina worked as the Tompkinses’ personal assistant for 22 years. She now directs all Tompkins Conservation’s projects in Chile. She’s based out of the TC Chile offices in the city of Puerto Varas, the gateway to Chilean Patagonia.
Conservation Director, Tompkins Conservation Chile
Ingrid studied forestry at the University of Chile, Santiago, and joined the team in 2001 to help develop the Alerce 3000 project at Pumalín Park. Ingrid runs the land research, acquisition, and mapping programs. She also leads the marine conservation project. She currently lives in El Amarillo, in the southern sector of Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park.
Managing Director, Tompkins Conservatio
For close to 30 years, Mark has served as a global conservation leader. He has supported many of the largest nature protection projects in the Americas and across the globe. Mark previously served as Chief Conservation Officer at The Nature Conservancy. He also served as President of the ClimateWorks Foundation. Mark earned both his J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Director of Development, Tompkins Conservation
Gwen has 25 years of experience as a nonprofit leader, fundraising professional, and small business entrepreneur. Her previous experience includes leading the Nature Conservancy’s Latin America Region development team. She has degrees in international studies and psychology and a Master of Public Administration, with focus on nonprofit leadership and fund development. Gwen lives in the Flint Hills of Kansas.
Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Rewilding Argentina
Luli Masera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She joined the team in 2017 and co-founded the Tompkins Conservation network’s marine conservation program in Argentina. She studied Environmental Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, specializing in detection and restoration of environmental impacts.
Chief of Staff, USA
Nicole joined Tompkins Conservation in 2017. She previously worked at the National Geographic Society and cofounded a political organizing group dedicated to creating opportunities for volunteers to participate in grassroots democracy. Nicole graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Syracuse University with degrees in geography, policy studies, and Spanish, which she studied in Chile, Ecuador, and Spain.
Development & Public Affairs Director, Tompkins Conservation Chile
Eugenio was born in Santiago de Chile. He studied Political Science at the Catholic University of Chile and holds a Master's degree in Public Policy. As an Eisenhower Fellow, he focused on environmental philanthropy and conservation in the United States. He currently leads "Amigos de los Parques" (the Friends of the Parks of Patagonia organization).
Global Communications Coordinator
Carolyn joined Tompkins Conservation following a freelance career as a journalist based in the Southern Cone. She has contributed to over 50 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, including Trekking in the Patagonian Andes, and her work has appeared in magazines, anthologies, and online publications. As a Fulbright fellow, she documented cultural changes in Patagonia.
Rewilding Argentina
Lupe was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she studied International Relations. Prior to joining Tompkins Conservation, Lupe co-founded Minkai, a nonprofit dedicated to promote equal educational opportunities in disadvantaged communities in northern Argentina. She later joined TECHO, a youth-led nonprofit that works on poverty alleviation in slums across Latin America, and launched the NYC office, from where she led the organization’s international fundraising efforts.
Controller, Argentina
Laura was born and raised in Buenos Aires where she later studied business administration. Driven by her own passion for conservation, Laura joined the CP team in 2001; currently, she is in charge of the administration, accounting, and taxes for all Tompkins profit and nonprofit work in Argentina.
Development Associate, Tompkins Conservation Chile
Born in Santiago, Chile, Marcela studied Hispano-American literature at the Universidad de Chile and journalism at Universidad Católica de Chile. Prior to joining the team in 2016, Marcela worked for over a decade in different projects related to conservation and tourism in Chilean Patagonia. She leads guest services and development efforts for Chile.
Controller, Tompkins Conservation Chile
Luis holds an MBA and is a certified public accountant and auditor. His professional experience includes teaching auditing classes and working for Ernst & Young. He enjoys spending time outside, teaching classes, and staying active through soccer and running.
Finance Director, USA
Debbie sits on the board of directors of Tompkins Conservation and is the finance director for all of the Tompkins family office, private, and philanthropic efforts. She began her career in public accounting as a C.P.A. specializing in taxation and was the chief financial officer of Esprit de Corp (founded by Doug Tompkins) for six years.
Controller, USA
Born and raised in San Francisco, Esther is a certified public accountant with a Master’s degree in Taxation. She worked with Doug at Esprit for many years and has worked on the Tompkins Conservation team for over 20 years.
Peter Buckley
Malinda Chouinard
Rick Ridgeway
Tom Butler
Jib Ellison
Debbie Ryker
Yvon Chouinard
Quincey Tompkins Imhoff
Kristine Tompkins
Forrest Berkley
Tony Hansen
Nadine Lehner
Nancy Schaub
Christina Desser
Nicolás Ibañez, Jr.
Scott Malkin
John van der Stricht
Chris Evans
Gardner Imhoff
Jim Sano
Heather Loomis-Tighe
Tompkins Conservation implements its projects through a nonprofit network including Tompkins Conservation Chile and Rewilding Argentina.
In ways large and small, as individuals and groups, we have the power to reorient the trajectory of life on Earth toward beauty, diversity, wildness, and health.
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Doug’s and Kris’s Bio
