New National Park at The Edge of The World

At the edge of the world map, where land turns into subantarctic forests, icy seas and glaciers, Chile is preparing to create a national park to protect endangered wildlife and unique ecosystems.

Kris and her late husband Doug Tompkins | Wikimedia Commons

The new Cape Froward national park will span some 370,000 acres (150,000 hectares) of subantarctic forests, peatlands and coastline at the southern tip of the Americas. Formerly a base for the whaling industry, the region’s unique ecosystems harbour endangered wildlife, including wild pumas, huemul deer and whales. “These are resilient places that maintain balance and create a refuge for species that are in danger of extinction,” Benjamín Caceres of Rewilding Chile told Reuters.

Rewilding Chile is a philanthropic venture founded by Kris and her late husband Doug Tompkins (who co-founded North Face). Over the years, they have helped conserve 14.7 million acres of land and 30 million marine acres, spending hundreds of millions of dollars buying enormous parcels of land in Chile and Argentina aimed at restoring vast tracts of grasslands, forests, and waterways. In 2018 and 2019, Kris handed over nearly one million acres to the Chilean government. This was added to four million acres of their own land that formed five new national parks and enlarged three existing ones.

Late last year, Rewilding Chile donated a further 314,000 acres (127,000 hectares) of land to the Chilean government with the condition that a national park at the edge of the world would be created within two years. Wheels are now in motion for that to happen and, when realised, Cape Froward will complete a 1,740 mile (2,800km) wildlife corridor at the southern tip of Chile, providing a vast protected area for imperilled species.