American buys slices of South America

[InvisibleTouch]

Hope this isn't a dupe ... I just found this article on Yahoo News. I've never heard of this guy, but I've got to applaud him. This is exactly what I would do if I were a millionaire!

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American buys slices of South America

By SHANE ROMIG, Associated Press Writer Sat Jun 9, 7:25 PM ET

LOS ESTEROS DEL IBERA, Argentina - The American multimillionaire who founded the North Face and Esprit clothing lines says he is trying to save the planet by buying bits of it. First Douglas Tompkins purchased a huge swath of southern Chile, and now he's hoping to save the northeast wetlands of neighboring Argentina.
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He has snapped up more than half a million acres of the Esteros del Ibera, a vast Argentine marshland teeming with wildlife.

Tompkins, 64, is a hero to some for his environmental stewardship. Others resent his land purchases as a foreign challenge to their national patrimony.

(snip)

Tompkins hopes to do in Argentina what he did in Chile — create broad stretches of land protected from agribusiness or industrial development, and one day turn them over to the government as nature reserves.


More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070609/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/buying_argentina

[jwirr]

1. If I am not mistaken he is doing what some of the environmental

groups are doing themselves.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Yup, groups like the Nature Conservancy are doing that here--

unless governments step in, this is the only sure way to preserve land. I applaud the efforts.

[InvisibleTouch]

3. Right, Nature Conservancy takes the same approach...

...and it seems to be the most effective one. It just must be nice to have the personal resources to make such a major positive impact! When I win the lottery, now.... ;)

[TwilightGardener]

4. LOL! If I win the lottery, I'll pull a Ted Turner and buy up ranchland

in New Mexico, Nebraska, etc. and run some buffalo (Tatanka!).

[entanglement]

5. Would a foreigner trying to buy a million acres in the US be met with such enthusiasm?

I'm weary of multi-millionaires buying up large swathes of land, no matter how noble their stated intention. These things are best left to Governments to handle.

[TwilightGardener]

6. I thought Japan and other countries have bought land here, with some

fuss from the natives--but that's to make money, not to preserve nature.

[InvisibleTouch]

7. If they were doing it for conservation reasons...

...I'd be delighted. Our government has certainly botched the job. Every day they're pushing to open wildlife reserves to oil drilling, logging, strip mining, snowmobiles, you name it. It may be hard to trust one individual's motives ("Gee, how do we really know he means well?"), but do you trust the government's motives, joined at the hip as they are to Big Oil and Big Industry?

[ileus]

8. Good on him...