An audacious plan to preserve vast swaths of South America's wild lands

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Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode Approaches to life: Improvise, pivot or plan

In the 90s, Kristine Tompkins and her late husband began buying swaths of land in South America. Their plan to create national parks through private enterprise had no precedent. That didn't stop them.

About Kristine Tompkins

Conservationist Kristine Tompkins is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation. She's also the former CEO of Patagonia, a company she led for 18 years. Kristine, with her late husband, Douglas Tompkins, protected more than 15 million acres of parkland in Chile and Argentina.

Through Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile, Tompkins Conservation has created or expanded 15 national parks in Argentina and Chile, including two marine parks, and is working to restore dozens of endangered or locally extinct species, such as the jaguar, red-and-green macaw and giant river otters in northeast Argentina.

Tompkins served as Patron for Protected Areas for the UN Environmental Programme from 2018 to 2022 and was the first conservationist awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Matthew Cloutier and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @ TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.