Original subtitles

March 11, clear sky...

I feel two decades of memories in this valley.

Years of joy...

of pain...

doubts and comfort.

Love, in a new form,

so strong, so tenacious,

Few have experienced what we have experienced here,

that is why, my love, I am lost without you.

Nothing reassures me as much as your firm and solid hand.

Return to your wife.

PATAGONIA, CHILE

DECEMBER 2015

Douglas Tompkins died in an accident on Tuesday in Chile.

He was a passionate environmentalist.

He had fallen in love with Patagonia in the 1960s,

before acquiring part of it in the 90s.

He lived 25 years in Chile, and leaves

as a legacy, the largest philanthropic project in the world.

Tompkins was a visionary.

He built a project at a time when environmentalists

were seen as eco-terrorists.

Doug had a big personality.

He died suddenly, nobody...

No one knew what to think anymore.

Was I going to give up?

KRIS TOMPKINS ECOLOGIST

If so, then the game was over.

We would have lost 25 years of work.

People didn't know

whether I was going to recover or not.

I had just lost the love of my life.

I was on my knees, dejected.

An acquaintance wrote me a note,

who said,

"You have to make a choice, and you have to do it now.

You can stay there.

You will tell this story to everyone

and mourn Doug until the end of your life.

Or you can get back to work and go all the way.

What do you choose?"

A hell of a choice.

THE TOMPKINS: A LIFE FOR NATURE

THREE YEARS LATER

I put it there.

- It is a multi-purpose model. - Yes.

She was laughing, right?

- I hope. - Yes.

I think she was laughing.

These are my K2 goggles.

- No. - They have...

- Impossible. - What ?

What year was that, Rick?

In 1978.

Rick takes us up the mountain.

I got you another ice axe.

Lighter.

- Actually, I took some... - Oh, no.

...several for Pablo and me.

Is it just that?

You can also take these...

I prefer... I prefer the long...

All right.

It's time.

After Doug passed away,

Rick asked me

if I wanted to climb with Kris and him.

He told me that Kris absolutely wanted

JIMMY CHIN ALPINIST, DIRECTOR

...climb that mountain.

I thought yes, that makes sense.

I understood.

This mountain is really special.

And here is our mountain.

Wow.

No really.

I am sorry but...

Gosh, look at that.

Look at. There is snow.

- A little. - A little bit.

I have never been this far in this park.

We had never seen all that.

It's true that we steal a lot...

but we never really went into the field.

We have never explored it.

We just worked.

It's an electroshock for me.

At the beginning,

Doug and I lived in the middle of this paradise,

we said to ourselves,

it could be amazing to preserve this place.

Just save it...

because of climate change and all the rest.

At this moment,

on the bulletin board,

it is nature that loses.

What can you do today to try

to save certain places on the planet?

What is your vision? Why are you here ?

CHILE ARGENTINA

We first drew up an overall plan.

DOUG TOMPKINS ECOLOGIST

And we realized that we could...

create a national park

by private initiative.

With the idea of ​​returning it to the country.

PURCHASE OF LAND

The ultimate solution to save the earth? Buy it.

Tompkins and his wife, Kris, have collected several pitches

on a scale never seen before, in order to preserve them.

It's the size of Yosemite National Park.

So the volcano over there, you bought it?

Yes, it was in the lot.

The locals began to wonder

what were the true intentions of these Americans.

CLAUDIO ALVARADO EX-SENATOR, CHILE

In our opinion, this man is just a

businessman disguised as an environmentalist.

At first, some Chileans did not understand

what an environmentalist was.

MICHELLE BACHELET EX-PRESIDENT, CHILE

Some were looking for a place to invest.

Investing, creating

energy through rivers.

Others wanted to raze the forest.

We didn't know there were issues here.

That was the problem.

Chile's ex-president accused your husband of hunting

people off their land.

You have also received several death threats.

Yes, we were threatened with death. Tapped our phones.

There were huge stakes.

I struggled...

for 25 years

to achieve everything Doug wanted to make possible.

That's what you were telling me about this morning.

- Yes - All that.

I drew these lines years ago, I

was told these lands were salable.

I arrived...

in Chile in 1990, I bought then renovated a house.

When we bought the land, we weren't thinking of making it a park, but

another piece of land was for sale, then another, even bigger one,

in the end, we had enough to create a national park.

On the one hand, we had a madman who dreamed of creating a park.

And on the other...

DAGO GUZMÁN DIRECTOR, PUMALÍN PARK

...someone ready to make this dream a reality on a national level.

She says "I want to ride with you, but don't crash.

Don't crash."

They were deeply united and devoted to each other.

EDGAR BOYLES DIRECTOR

They had a common vision. They fought for her.

Sometimes we argue.

No, I believe...

that we have this will...

to fight against the destruction of the wild world.

It's that kind of strong bond

which can unite two people together.

Do we take a break or continue?

- Let's go to the edge. - All right.

- It's at... - Yes. All right.

-...80 or 100 meters. - I'm OK with that.

How's it going Kris?

How are you.

GOOD.

I always said

that in my life it was all or nothing,

never in between.

This is the life I wanted before I died.

I wasn't sure what, but I wanted something...

wild, extraordinary,

risky, in the sense that it would take me out of my comfort zone.

Doug would have been so happy for me

and proud of me

to get up here...

see what the highest point in the park looks like.

I perceive it,

as a way of saying a final goodbye.

Doug climbed this mountain in 2008

for the first time.

Mountaineering has always been

his first love.

He grew up in the Northwestern United States.

He was only in college when he climbed the Shawangunk Ridge.

He didn't care about school and never went to college.

For him, it was a waste of time, and a way to fit in.

He stopped everything

and left.

At 17 years old...

he drove west...

He had no money.

He did not know...

What he would do there, what he would find there.

It happened in Yosemite. And surveyed mountains and valleys.

YVON CHOUINARD FOUNDER OF PATAGONIA

We went there together.

And we became good friends.

A few years later, Yvon introduced us.

They were best friends, and climbed the passes together.

They were talented climbers.

It's those little guys, mountaineers, surfers and skiers

who created the clothing brand we all know today.

Doug admired Yvon,

their relationship continued to evolve for 50 years.

Yvon listened carefully to Doug

when he talked about business.

He told her about franchising a food stand

in Yosemite.

He took care of both the stand and his climbs.

He was an entrepreneur.

To understand entrepreneurs,

you need to study young offenders

their credo is: "Such a thing

sucks, I'm going to do it my way".

Doug became a businessman before anyone else.

Me, I was a blacksmith,

I created climbing equipment,

but I didn't consider myself a businessman,

not at the time.

I was mountaineering six months out of the year...

CHOUINARD C MOUNTAINEERING EQUIPMENT

...I was making equipment.

My business grew little by little,

but we had new ideas all the time.

Our policy was:

"there is a time to work,

and a time to play".

And when surfing season came: "Let's go surfing".

That's where I met Kris.

She was the typical surfer girl, always barefoot.

In fact, even in high school

she went there barefoot,

she drove her teachers mad with rage.

She herself was a young delinquent.

Kris and Yvon were next door neighbors.

VOICE OF PATAGONIA CO-OWNER MALINDA CHOUINARD

I met her when I was 15 or 16.

She was so friendly.

She loved talking, doing activities,

but she was very careful.

We grew up on my great-grandfather's farm in California.

I was eight years old when my father and his oil company

settled in Venezuela,

we had a small hamlet on the basin of the Orinoco.

One afternoon, my father fell ill,

he died five days later of polio.

After his death,

our mother remarried a friend of the family.

He was a go-getter, he had four children.

We were seven in all, we were called: "thugs".

We were wild.

My father wanted children

able to jump from the highest diving board.

Nothing was impossible.

I was the most receptive.

All we were asked was to excel in our field.

Anything, but excel at it.

I preferred to go to public high school rather than private,

but it was a bad high school, that's when

I started going to the beach, and going out

with my older brother and Yvon Chouinard.

I was 15 at the time.

He was true to himself.

On the other hand, I was like a small pebble in a river,

bouncing on its banks, letting myself be

carried by the current, clinging to the rocks,

before letting myself be taken

up by another current, and so on.

After my freshman year of college,

my mother told me: "Find yourself a job".

I went to complain to Yvon,

who hired me all summer for $2 an hour.

She was a helper packer.

Packer helper.

The bottom of the scale.

Then she moved up the ladder.

And we learned little by little

to run the business together.

Doug was also starting his business.

First as a guide,

To the Service of the Alpine Guides of California.

That's why I created The North Face.

I had to provide his clients with equipment.

It was during this time that Doug and Susie met.

I met Susie, my first wife, while hitchhiking.

She picked me up.

I was driving...

SUSIE BUELL DESIGNER, CO-FOUNDER OF ESPRIT

in the Emerald Bay area,

around Lake Tahoe,

and suddenly I see a man hitchhiking.

Pull up, pull it up, it had ropes

and all mountaineering equipment.

He was very arrogant.

I remember thinking to myself, "What a moron this guy is.

But he's got a cool thing about him, though."

We ended up getting married

and we moved to North Beach in San Francisco.

THE NORTH FACE THE ALPINE SPECIALISTS

At the opening of The North Face,

we had invited the Greatful Dead

to come and play.

Doug had fun

to prepare everything, it was really successful.

He had created this whole unique environment

to sell a new kind of clothing, and alpine equipment.

The North Face kept growing.

But Doug was growing impatient, all he wanted was

climb, not stay rooted to the ground.

And so, we sold.

At the time, Susie created Esprit.

In partnership with another woman.

The first clothes were sold at reduced prices

very simplistic that we had created.

I remember showing him the controls.

Doug looked at them, then he shook his head,

saying: "You have a great opportunity".

And we allied.

Esprit became a big brand and we took off.

We grew the business.

Before expanding internationally

with partners around the world,

in Asia, Australia, as far as Europe.

We are in the middle of what will become,

hopefully Patagonia National Park.

But... what will happen?

Having a great idea is one thing,

but being able to achieve it is another.

Hence the importance of working closely with the government.

It is one of five new parks.

For each of them,

we bought large territories

and proposed to the government to partner with us

and to donate additional federal lands to us.

The Alacalufes Reserve could easily become a national park

without any risk of production losses.

That would be wonderful

that all these projects come to fruition one day

CLIMBER, AUTHOR

in real national parks.

Convincing yourself to make this possible was also a challenge.

The Chilean economy has long been based on mining.

It is said that the salary of Chileans

is based on mining.

It represents more than 60% of our exports.

Chile is now the world's largest copper producer.

and the second of lithium.

Chile is a mining country.

It is an extractive economy.

The mining industry is polluting.

His political philosophy

was to exploit the lands and forests,

so you think that the idea of ​​a national park

was not in the minds of the government.

Land philanthropy did not exist in Latin America.

And now this crazy American arrives and announces:

“I am going to buy this large territory in Chile to make

it national parks, then to return it to the Chileans”.

They said to themselves: "Stop. Nobody does that".

"No, he must have another reason."

Doug arrived here in 1961.

Skiers came to train here out of season.

That's when he started realizing

what was Argentina and Chile.

From the start, he loved it.

His love affair with Patagonia had just begun.

It was his idea to go down to Patagonia.

We went there two weeks later.

In an old van,

crowded with skis, surfboards,

and climbing equipment,

we drove 15 or 20,000 kilometres.

It was a great adventure.

A legendary journey.

Let's say,

that they shaped an entire era.

They shaped a way of life.

Climb, surf,

ski on summits never skied before,

and finally achieve the hardest climb

and unique for their time.

We spent 60 days trying to climb Fitz Roy.

We spent 31 days in an ice cave.

We must have had five days of sunshine during this ascent.

I left for nine months.

Yvon Chouinard, an old friend, and three other friends

we stayed a long time in Chile.

We fell in love with Patagonia and its region.

It was my first time in Patagonia.

It was like the American West a century ago,

but it was genuine.

This trip was long enough...

to transform our lives.

When Yvon went down to Patagonia...

...in 1968 with Doug Tompkins to ride the Fitz Roy,

the place was wild.

We went back exactly 20 years later

and everything was different there.

Look at this.

They built roads and everything else.

They're going to open a McDonald's and a Wimpy.

Developers built streets and street signs

of what later became the town of Chalten.

We started noticing

the climate has been

warming for a very long time.

We noticed that the glaciers were beginning to retreat.

We started learning about...

climate change.

Doug was the first...

to really feel it.

It was the double aspect of his thirst for knowledge,

he met people

who recommended other books.

CARLOS FUENTES A CERTAIN RELATIONSHIP

He was deeply involved in ecology

it was almost natural, because all these

committed environmentalists were climbers.

They saw nature being destroyed.

And when we destroy nature, we destroy ourselves.

Ecology is discerning what binds each form of life together.

Each has an intrinsic value.

Their value does not depend on what man attributes to them.

After going to Patagonia, I said to myself:

"I want to make clothes adapted to the conditions on site".

yvon said:

"I want to create jackets".

"I will call my brand: Patagonia".

Patagonia. One of those magic words.

For brand image,

we chose the silhouette of the Fitz Roy.

I don't know why he said to me:

"You should take care of it."

So I created the brand,

I directed and developed it.

Yvon always has new ideas,

but don't know how to do it.

Kris, realized them, and rejected bad ideas.

VOICE OF PATAGONIA CO-OWNER MALINDA CHOUINARD

She played a key role.

She was confident and motivated.

She was our president and our general manager.

Once Patagonia launched,

we were growing at a breakneck pace,

especially for the time.

Then, in the early 1980s,

Yvon decided to give Patagonia

a surge of activism.

I was building my business and worried about the planet.

I wanted to make my company more and more responsible.

But not Doug.

He was content to grow his brand again and again.

Go ahead, Fred Astaire.

Emily's picture...

Tompkins is not a fashion designer.

It was his wife, Susie, who created the Esprit style.

He takes care of the rest, like the image of the brand

and communication.

She is superb. Julie Hall.

- It's perfect. - GOOD.

Esprit had a studio in Milan,

a studio in Paris.

Others in New York, in Tokyo.

When you came home, you came

across a $5 million Francis Bacon triptych

hung above the fireplace.

The heyday of Esprit dates back to when Doug devoted himself entirely

and fully involved

in its role as a global entrepreneur

within a fashion industry brand.

Then he changed.

I have changed a lot.

Actually,

I kind of went through...

in the late 80's.

I just said to myself: "I have to do something else".

I think he was...

lost.

He had lost himself.

The goal of a fashion company

is to make you feel the need

to buy new clothes.

I realized that I was only bringing

more destruction to our world.

FOR RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION

OUR NEEDS ARE DEFINED BY THINGS WITHOUT INTEREST

Esprit's catalogs

were carrying a message

suggesting you buy their clothes.

SPIRIT CHANGE SPIRIT? ...BUY ONLY THE NECESSARY.

You can't do this and then ask yourself

how you will pay your employees and advance your brand.

...AN "ENVIRONMENT-CONSCIOUS" STYLE...

In the early 90,

I could not any more.

The sign had difficulties and I made up my mind

to use me to try to save Esprit.

Susie and Doug broke up

And...

they had to share the business.

She bought him his share

because he wanted to take a new path.

He returned to where he had been happy

for the last time: in Patagonia.

It was a big change, necessary for him.

LITO TEJADA-FLORES ALPINIST, DIRECTOR

He was both the same and changed. He was more interesting.

Go to South America and commit to a project

who was close to his heart,

that was his motto,

commit first, then manage.

That's exactly what he did.

He engaged all his forces.

He had no specific plan.

CAROLINA MORGADO DIRECTOR OF REWILDING CHILE

When he arrived in Chile, he wanted to get out of the dynamics of Esprit.

When he was able to fly an airplane,

he noticed that the farm owners were always absent.

We bought small farms

to small farmers who wanted to leave.

Doug bought an 800 hectare farm in Reñihue.

In fact, it is here,

where we are

that I lived for a year and a half,

just here.

With a living room and a kitchen,

a dining room.

I renovated the old house, little by little.

There was no electricity.

We had three meters by two,

or four by two,

it would have...

- Yes. -...you see ?

- Never mind. - Yes, whatever.

It's not...

- There are two bedrooms, - You have to multiply.

There are two bedrooms.

He had money.

He was not a billionaire.

He had a nice sum, about 150 million dollars.

He could do whatever he wanted.

And that's what he did.

The primary purpose was to protect the land.

But on these lands, we had the possibility

to set up experimental farms.

Farms where we could demonstrate,

first to ourselves and then to others,

that all life there was possible,

without resorting to deforestation.

That there were other approaches to life there.

We created these farms,

planted berries,

produce honey,

as well as jam,

sheep were also raised there for their wool.

With this wool, we created an artisanal network.

If it was profitable? No way.

Doug said that with every jar of honey sold, we gave

literally $5.

It wasn't a problem for him.

He preferred to be environmentally sustainable

and economically unstable.

We were lucky to give work to a lot of people.

He often bitched at me

telling myself that I had to sell my business and...

do the same as him.

That what he was doing was good, unlike me.

I wanted to run my business responsibly.

Keep my business and make it an accountability tool.

To do this,

I made the decision to rethink our activity.

Our new guideline,

was to trade for the planet.

I took a dozen

of my best employees,

and we went to Patagonia.

Doug and Kris met on this trip.

NOW ?

We were in Calafate, a very small town.

Seated in the restaurant,

when Doug Tompkins arrives.

He approaches, slumps next to me

he says "Boom" to me.

"What's up, baby?"

Then he said to me... It's very typical of Doug,

He said to me, "What's up?"

I replied: "We leave tomorrow morning".

"Why are you leaving?"

"It's the end of our stay".

"Okay, but why?"

"Why don't you stay?

"Why not stay,

I'll take you back to the United States myself?"

I answered: "No, do not insist".

"I will not fly with you".

Then he called me from San Francisco,

when we were both there.

"What are you doing ?"

"Well..."

I was in a relationship,

but I knew it wouldn't work.

He is quite charming.

He was very charming.

One day, Doug calls me and says:

"You see your friend Kris,

you get along well, don't you?"

I said, "She's one of my best friends,

she is the godmother of my three children".

He answers me :

"What do you think of her?"

I told her she was a beautiful woman.

And literally the same day,

Kris calls me and asks me:

"Yvon's boyfriend, Doug Tompkins, you and him...

you go mountaineering together".

"How is he? Do you know him well?"

I replied "Oh".

When my wife found out that Doug

had a crush on Kris, she said to me: "Watch out for disaster".

She knew how he had treated his ex-girlfriends.

Doug was wild, young, good-natured and maintained...

several links.

And Kris was asking people if that was still the case.

They answered him: “No, he has changed”.

"Doug will be faithful. He's changed."

In turn, the women said:

"Stay away from him. This is madness."

Sometimes Doug could act like a fool.

So we were a little worried.

I started working with Yvon.

I was very young,

it made...

23 years,

I thought,

I didn't want to do that anymore.

It was over.

My life was over.

Most people think I'm talking

about Patagonia when I say that.

But no. I am talking about me.

My life was over.

I had to change it.

I thought there had to be something else,

something bigger.

Doug called me from time to time.

One evening I tell him that I am going

to France to work at the Paris agency.

He replies, "Great, see you there."

True to form, he comes to Paris.

We go to dinner at his favorite restaurant.

Then we stroll through Paris.

He asks me to come and see him in Chile.

I reply, "No way.

You're a world-class speaker."

He stopped,

looked at his feet, looked

me in the eye, then said:

"I will never let anything happen to you".

It was one of those moments when you notice that the person

transforms deep within itself.

Later he confessed to me

that was the case.

It was the case for me too.

I said to myself...

that he was the man I was to marry.

But it was... it was crazy. Really crazy.

I had made a commitment to a man.

I finished

by leaving Paris being... engaged.

I had to visit him 10 days in Chile,

I stayed for five weeks.

It was chemical.

Like... love at first sight.

I will be stepping down as CEO.

We are looking for someone to replace me.

I hope to find someone by October,

train this person by my side for three months,

so that on January 1, I can leave.

And... go to Chile,

where I will definitely settle.

I threw it all away...

What a scandal.

I completely changed my personal life.

But I was right. It turned out to be a good thing.

It was a big leap into the unknown.

It could also have gone wrong.

It was insane.

I think back to Doug on our first date.

I was like, "Damn, what did I do?"

The farm we are going to

was...

inaccessible.

April 4, 1994

This place that Doug owns is amazing.

A whole peninsula,

marvelous glaciers,

waterfalls, rivers.

April 5, 1994, we wake up with frost in our beds.

A pure and wonderful spectacle.

We will go south through the forests of Coihue,

without dinner, we'll sleep, huddled together

at the Nires hotel.

May 20, fourth stormy day,

no calm.

Strong winds push water into the house.

Up at 2 a.m. to secure the fireplace

and kill a giant rat.

Unable to get out.

no phone,

VOICE OF PATAGONIA CO-OWNER MALINDA CHOUINARD

nor any access,

to enter or exit.

She was alone with Doug.

We are in our forties, and full of projects.

Consequent and hard to lead,

and unprecedented

In the region.

We have to move forward step by step.

And our union was still young.

You hope that the ties of marriage that bind you

won't give up, because we have to work together

and living together, in extreme circumstances.

Initially, the first step

was to create a nature reserve.

It was a way of protecting this territory.

But the more they advanced in time,

the more they developed the idea of ​​creating national

parks, from there, our collaboration took a new turn.

SANTIAGO BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA CHILE

That's where it all began.

We lived here.

FARM, REÑIHUE

All this territory became Pumalín.

From the border with Argentina to the Pacific Ocean.

It was the first park.

We bought 310,000 hectares, then we expanded.

PUMALÍN 310,000 HECTARES

We didn't do anything in a vacuum.

We went to meet

people, mayors,

everyone involved.

We were attracting suspicion.

Often,

we faced hostile reactions.

We came to talk to the mayor.

We want to explain to him our idea of ​​donating

of those lands which is within its territory.

It is believed that she will support this cause.

It is concerned with the preservation of nature.

The project is to create the national park

from Cabo León by including the nature reserve.

The terms "national park" are important,

because they cause tourist attraction.

PUMALÍN PARK 310,000 HECTARES

It is an impenetrable zone, made up only of tropical forest.

It was basically the federal

government that opposed the project.

We had five years of conflict...

social and political.

ARGENTINA CHILE

What do you dislike about Tompkins' project?

They do not offer any progress.

We are a poor country...

JAIME ORPIS FORMER CONGRESS MEMBER, CHILE

...who needs to progress

and raise their standards.

RODRIGO NORIEGA PILOT, PUMALÍN PARK

We were emerging from 20 years of dictatorship,

so all these far right politicians

did not understand this notion of philanthropy.

Chile has good reason to doubt the Americans.

In 1973,

the Nixon administration participated in the coup

then beginning 17 years of a brutal dictatorship

guided by Augusto Pinochet.

PINOCHET DIET

However, the Tompkins acquired some small land

intended to be preserved,

They were flabbergasted to be insulted as "Dirty Americans".

Nevertheless,

Chile is a long country.

And...

They bought so much land...

ANDRÉS VELASCO FORMER MINISTER OF FINANCE, CHILE

...that in the end, they had a substantial share of the territory.

The armies were worried

that a foreigner owns so much national land...

PEDRO PABLO GUTIÉRREZ ATTORNEY, TOMPKINS CONSERVATION

...from the border to the ocean.

He was accused of splitting the country in two.

The Chilean political right was ulcerated, and

was looking for solutions to deal with this.

March 13, 1995,

almost all newspapers, and televisions...

THE NATION SUSPICIOUS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL EMPIRE

...Chileans were talking about us last night,

and again this morning.

AMERICANS ARE BUYING AREAS OF VIRGIN FORESTS.

The extreme right and the salmon industry are attacking us.

We were fighting against commercial salmon farming.

These are fish farms.

It is the equivalent of cattle ranches.

If you dive under its cages, you will see

a dead sea.

Underwater life was suffocated.

Nothing lives there anymore.

Sea lions would approach the cages to feed.

Sometimes, we found on the beach, sea lions

shot down by gunfire.

REWARD FOR SAVING THE SEA LIONS

Doug had posted a wanted notice.

Pledge $2,500,

for whoever would lead us to the sea lion killer,

he had just set fire to the powder.

NEW AGGRESSION AGAINST TOMPKINS

April 21, 1995,

the newspapers are attacking Doug and me again.

TOMPKINS AGAIN IN A CONTROVERSY

Our life here is increasingly threatened.

FREI AGAINST TOMPKINS: HE BELIEVES TO OWN THE COUNTRY

October 17, our phones are tapped.

New charges from the army...

DOUG TOMPKINS: A “GRINGO” IN TROUBLE

we wonder what will be next.

I'm worried about Doug's safety.

They must have holed up at the American Embassy.

They were threatened with death.

The FBI told my wife and I that our calls were being tapped.

Because we were friends with the Tompkins.

BELISARIO VELASCO FORMER INTERIOR MINISTER, CHILE

We don't harass him.

There was a lot of mistrust.

It was said that he first intended to buy land at a low price

CLAUDIO ALVARADO FORMER SENATOR, CHILE

...and then resell them for more.

The collective imagination has fomented a lot of concerns.

At the time, I was...

I was a minister

and I was in charge of defense matters.

The army had all kinds of theories, that Israel was

trying to take over part of Chile, and many others.

We have been accused of building a site...

DANGER CHEMICAL WASTE TREATMENT

...of nuclear waste for the United States,

a new Jewish state, when we had

an Anglican education,

a new military base for Argentina so that

they can put an end to Chile once and for all.

funniest theory

it was that we were going to empty the south of Chile of its cattle

to replace it with American bison.

If we put all your projects

together, in Chile and Argentina,

how many hectares are we talking about?

Of 810,000 hectares.

From 810,000?

A little less.

These are impressive numbers.

It's nothing at all.

If you compare what is

preserved and what is destroyed each year,

we are on the losing side.

Every year, 16 million hectares of wilderness are lost.

AMAZONAS, BRAZIL

At this rate, all wilderness will be gone in 50 years.

MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL

BOLIVIA

People say, the Tompkins preserved

more than 800,000 hectares of land, it's huge, yes...

OREGON, USA

...but comparing the situations, it is an infinitesimal quantity.

KALIMANTAN, BORNEO

Whether the forests of Indonesia

or the grasslands of East Africa, no matter where...

...we are not gaining ground.

We're just resisting the offensive.

We are in the middle of a storm,

where the population is growing...

GLOBAL DEFORESTATION

...and consumption, and plummeting natural resources.

And no one can really turn the tide

they cannot, because the cultural

impact of these changes is so great

for them, that they don't even care.

ARGENTINA CHILE

CHILE ARGENTINA

When we tried to create Corcovado Park,

CORCOVADO PARK 400,013 HECTARES

...we confronted the army.

Much of what was to constitute the park

belonged to the army

who used it as a military testing area.

Doug met the generals

to convince them to preserve this place

and stop the testing of explosives.

Before going to make an offer to the Chilean government,

we were well prepared in order to show them

everything we had invested in those lands.

We told them,

"We will donate our park and all its infrastructure

if for each half-hectare you combine four

of unused federal land."

Thanks to this, we were able

achieve greater things than

we could have done on our own.

ARGENTINA CHILE

Patagonia Park was also a contentious project.

We had bought several thousand hectares in Argentina,

then we bought an old estancia...

CHILE ARGENTINA ESTANCIA VALLE CHACABUCO

of 80,000 hectares in Chile.

We had the idea of ​​passing this park

beyond the Argentinian border...

PATAGONIA PARK

...in order to preserve approximately 800,000 hectares in total.

Regarding the local communities,

it was basically a breeding problem.

Some were upset that we could

put out of production one of the biggest

livestock areas of Chile.

ARGENTINA CHILE

When we went to Iberá...

PARAGUAY ARGENTINA BRAZIL

...the challenge was colossal.

IBERÁ PARK 712,000 HECTARES

Some locals say they were moved and then ignored

by those they call the Barons of Ecology.

IBERÁ PARTIMONY OF THE CORRENTINOS

We don't believe that Tompkins, a

multi-millionaire, suddenly became a philanthropist.

PUMALÍN PARK 310,000 HECTARES

There were also disagreements

concerning land titles around Pumalín.

About 1 or 2%, or about 200 families

felt that their presence there was threatened.

It took five years for each of them to obtain a land title

to reassure them.

So no more doubt about

what belongs to you, and what belongs to the park.

We've been just as friendly as these people are

in our way of settling land disputes.

But in the end, it touched you, didn't it?

Yes, it touched me, because it was

quite the opposite that happened.

Opponents were not just politicians or individuals,

but also institutions.

Opposition to the Tompkins

was fomented by the Catholic Church.

Here is the missing part of Pumalín Park.

Thirty thousand hectares of land named

Huinay, belonging to the Catholic Church

Douglas Tompkins was very close to acquiring Huinay.

The Catholic University has received a lot of pressure

forbidding him to sell us the power plant

that she sold to an electric company.

It must have been hurtful.

Yes, it was.

The property below...

- Shall we buy it? - Yes.

They had to believe in their projects.

Ninety-nine percent of people would have left saying:

"It's impossible to live here."

Because we Chileans behaved badly.

February 25,

every day brings its share of bad news.

Doug is overwhelmed with anger and frustration,

and my nerves are strained.

Why do we do this?

I go home to confront him.

Many tears, honesty,

and loving responses.

I thought we could drown this area

but not do something geometrically perfect.

We could follow a curve, like that.

To make it natural.

I want it to be accessible to the public.

You have to set up infrastructure to accommodate it.

A reception for visitors, campsites,

even hotels,

car parks, paths, marked trails,

administrative centers, signs.

You need all of that

to make a national park.

He was a perfectionist.

At Esprit, in his office, he had a sign...

EVERY DETAIL COUNTS

...with the words "every detail counts".

He was convinced that a world without beauty was superfluous.

Through this painstaking work...

in reality,

there was an incessant and stubborn search

of beauty.

The tractor driver is a kind of artist.

You can paint a landscape with your tractor,

but you need dexterity.

Because, at the end of the road, you will take a photo

and we will see your work, the long-awaited work.

At the beginning of our collaboration with Chile and Argentina,

large tracts of land were thought to be preserved.

But in reality,

as the saying goes,

a landscape without wild life is only a staging.

Everything changed when we went to Iberá.

We realized that many animals were missing,

From the jaguars, down the chain.

We were no longer talking about creating national parks.

We were talking about creating a fully functioning ecosystem.

Giving back its essence to nature.

For that it is necessary

bring animal species back to where they belong

and from which they left.

Because of poaching, hunting,

of livestock production.

Each species has a major role in the ecosystem.

If the guanacos are so numerous,

it's to feed the pumas.

Cougars hunt guanacos and feed scavengers.

We are not talking about the preservation of a single species

but wild interactions.

Guardians of our parks

CRISTIÁN SAUCEDO MANAGER OF THE REWILDING

CHILE PROGRAM were former cattle ranchers,

today they are watching cougars.

Arcelia was the son of the mountain lion hunter.

He hunted with his

father and got a salary,

plus a bonus for each cougar pelt returned.

What would your father think if he saw you now...

take care of cougars?

With all those cougars!

Surrounded by pumas, without killing any!

Without killing any!

What change !

Of course. This is a big change for me!

From an ethical point of view,

Above all, we must preserve biodiversity.

We have to share the planet with the animals.

We need to create a suitable habitat

and keep the evolution of nature going.

By over-expanding, we harm wild habitats.

It's a self-defeating development

and that's the problem, we are developing,

we are expanding, again and more and more

until an inevitable collapse.

February 18,

why have we never climbed a mountain together?

The view from up there

is a gift from heaven.

Doug made it the first ascent,

in general, when you climb a mountain

for the first time, you have to name it.

Doug called her Kris.

It was a good effort.

Yes, it was awesome.

Christine,

is the highest point in the park

it's kind of the jewel in the crown.

There's no better Valentine's Day gift

for your wife.

Yes. He was always like that with me.

They were excessive

but deeply in love. Without a doubt.

They always took care of each other.

If you had seen them together, you would have said...

...teenagers,

TIMMY O'NEILL MOUNTAINEERING

who we would catch smooching.

They were just love.

Every day,

he was sending her one of these messages.

I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WIFE THAT I LOVE

Photo messages.

THEY BOTH LOVE EACH OTHER

They gave each other nicknames.

LOLO LOVES BIRDY

She was Birdy.

THE RARE BIRDS I LOVE

I remember perfectly

of a beautiful film

on DVD he had made.

The love of my life is a world class woman at all times.

She is gorgeous at 60.

You are the undisputed number one.

BIRDY, MY ONE AND ONLY! WE LOVE YOU !

BIRDY AND HIS "LOLO" BOTH IN SEXAGENARS

It's Doug's secret side, which I've never seen, but...

Here we are.

What a peak.

Yes.

I'm happy to be here.

Jimmy and I had been here before.

12 years ago

with Yvon and Doug.

Yes !

- One more. - We did it, finally.

His first ascent.

There is no such thing.

I remember a superb

sunset, like the one last night.

And I remembered Doug.

My biological clock is ticking.

I feel it.

You still have a lot of work.

I have projects.

These are long-term projects, and you're wondering...

...how are you going to finish them.

I would like to see if we

can bring them to an end.

It takes a lot of time.

- Time is the key. - Yes.

It is the most important.

- Life... - As always.

Life flies.

Yes.

I had spoken to Doug about this trip.

At first.

He was really happy to do it.

We thought it would be great to go kayaking on this big lake,

close to the Patagonia National Park.

We took them to the lake,

they prepared their kayaks for hours.

Go ahead, darling.

They were great kayakers,

but they had hired someone

to organize the trip.

They took out a zodiac and put the kayaks in the water.

Doug and I had a two-seater.

Yvon and Weston were alone.

And Jeb and Lorenzo were together too.

On the fourth day, the wind picked up.

It raised waves more than two meters high.

The rental boat's rudder was malfunctioning.

It was getting harder and harder for Doug and me.

to keep the front of the boat in the direction of the wind.

A wave hit us.

Suddenly the kayak flipped over.

I said to Doug:

"Are we catching him?

because if we come out in the

middle of the lake, we are dead".

We decided to catch him.

It's hard, you know,

we didn't have more than ten minutes.

In such cold water, you can only last half an hour.

A first wave... Then a second. There I notice

I start to sink.

Then something broke

I shouted: "No!"

I swam as fast as possible.

A minute later, Jeb and Lorenzo arrived on their tandem.

I grabbed the back of the kayak and they towed me away.

I got to Doug first.

He grabbed the back

WESTON BOYLES ECOLOGIST

of the kayak, I turned

towards the coast, then I paddled.

He was serene.

He was kicking his feet.

He could have grabbed hold of me and knocked me down.

But you can't fight when

hypothermia wins you over.

I felt he was losing his strength

by dint of clinging.

Towards the end, Doug stared at the Valley of Aviano

And...

he was whispering.

When he no longer had enough strength to hold on to the boat,

I lifted him with one arm to get his head out of the water.

We have... I couldn't...

hold him, and paddle.

I let go of the paddle.

Doug and I sat there floating around for about an hour,

or an hour and a half.

Then I have...

heard a helicopter.

They took us out and directed us to the shore.

And we went to the hospital.

Snippets of messages reached us.

"Finally", "It's Doug", "Rick", "Helicopter".

I knew you had problems.

Instinctively, without knowing anything, I knew.

Outside, I begged the Gods,

pity, pity, pity,

bring it back to me.

We arrived at the lodge, the phone rang,

the owner picked up,

and... a minute later,

he hangs up, looks at us, and says:

"Doug is dead".

I ran into your room, where they had tried everything.

A cold, soft body.

I crawled onto your bed and lay down beside you.

All I wanted was for us to hug

and forget everything else, and everyone.

Then I fixed my soup.

And I remember Yvon looking at his.

Then he...

took his spoon, and started

to eat it,

slowly.

Then he looked at me and said:

"Eat your soup. It's good".

I applied...

to consider

every spoonful of soup, going down my throat.

We brought it back the next day.

I was in the back with the coffin.

I had a knife in my bag.

I engraved our names.

Without noticing...

by engraving the letters,

by pressing as hard as possible,

I cut myself.

There was blood on the coffin,

and on me.

And...

I was no longer attached.

I so wanted to engrave "Birdy" and "Lolo" on it.

In the end, Rick, who was in front with the driver,

come see me,

and said to me, "You, sit down, go to your seat,

Fasten your seatbelt, and give me that knife.

That's enough.

Do you want people to see this on landing?"

She was on the edge of the abyss.

To the point where she didn't even want to live anymore.

She didn't want to face life anymore... without him.

Doug died three days ago

during an excursion with his best friends.

Yvon Chouinard, his lifelong friend,

Rick Ridgeway, who almost stayed there too,

and Weston Boyles,

the "little girl" of the group

who stayed with him until the end.

He never gave it up.

I am so grateful to him.

He lived a life worth a hundred.

I can't imagine my life without him, but that's how it is.

Thanks for coming.

We lowered his coffin into the grave.

With all who came

the inhabitants of the surroundings, hundreds of people,

we threw earth, with our bare hands, on his coffin.

It took me a long time

to decide not to accompany him.

It is a nice place to visit.

I had... gone mad after he died.

I was every day.

May 17,

When you left Spirit,

you left in search of the rest of your life.

A noble gesture, to live a new life.

I find myself faced with this same question.

In a way, you have to write a new story.

Now may be the time, Birdy.

It's time to write it all down.

Although I still feel like...

an amputation,

not just a loss,

I feel...

that this majestic and ambitious vision of his own,

that's what kept me alive.

She was my lifeline.

We never stopped.

I succeeded.

All those things that were unmanageable to him,

she put an end to it.

She got back to normal.

We no longer have the farms.

We had up to thirteen.

They weren't viable.

It was too expensive.

I felt like I was disrespecting him.

I couldn't let them spin anymore,

it was hard.

For me, everything was black or white.

No in-between.

It was binary. My life has become binary.

I want to die, I will live.

We're going to do this. We're not going to do that.

Doug wants this, we won't.

Period.

Pumalin? Ended.

Valley Chac? Almost done too.

Ibera? Let's go.

We will go twice as fast,

twice as large.

Here we go, that's all. We have nothing to lose.

It was my motto: "I have nothing to lose".

The thing that I would never have said, I was saying it.

She had totally changed her way of being.

And little by little,

Kris not only found a reason to keep going,

but she also got stronger

and brave.

I've always been that little pebble in a current.

But it's over.

I know exactly what I want to do.

I live with lots of projects.

The new park will...

...930,000.

So 930,000 hectares.

Another Pumalín or Corcovado.

Yes.

810,000 hectares.

This is serious.

She keeps wondering what the next project will be.

What motivates me the most is the rewilding.

These are

the first two groups to be released.

Yes.

But they interact with wild groups.

- Yes. - They manage

much better in freedom than in enclosure.

There was more to do than just preserve the land.

These places will not be restored

until all species have returned.

Kris participated in the reintroduction

of more than a dozen species to date,

including that of the jaguar,

something never done before.

It was Doug's idea,

to try everything to reintroduce the jaguars.

It is an emblematic animal.

At the top of the food chain.

It was one of his dreams.

We released nine.

Among which, two female babies

who have grown up...

Yes.

...and had two babies.

It is believed. At least one.

- Yes. - Yes.

Amazing !

I cry every time I think about it.

Sincere tears.

National parks are like...

Petri dishes.

When...

everything is going wrong,

parks and other protected areas act as a Petri dish

within which, evolution resumes on its own.

Who knows ?

What Kris does, help protect biodiversity

may have a direct link

with climate change.

And through this link,

it is about the survival of species on our planet.

March 2, 2017,

the government has sent us a smoke signal.

We will sign an agreement on March 15.

First it was a relief, then a momentary joy

which gave way to the infinite admiration that I have in you.

I wondered, how could I have come this far without you?

Then I remembered, that you had always been there.

When you dedicate not only your wealth,

but also your life,

then that you choose to be buried in this same place.

No one can say anymore

"He's just passing through."

Across the country...

there was this outpouring of empathy

towards Kris.

It galvanized us...

"...RESTORING THE LAND AND RETURNING IT TO THE COMMUNITY"

...suddenly, any form of opposition...

LAUNCH OF TOMPKINS NATIONAL PARK

...and the obstacles were gone.

TOMPKINS CONSERVATION TO TRANSFER ITS PARKS

Historical. It's historic.

Seriously, no one has ever done that.

When I was president, I met Kristine

and we thought it would be interesting to

have two women pursue Doug's dream...

who was so dear to him.

But the truth

it was that we had to put an end to these parks.

Because don't forget that we paid astronomical sums.

Last year we spent

almost $6 million.

If we didn't give away the parks,

we could have suffered an economic shipwreck.

Hi !

Our best carpenters take care of the panel!

I can not believe !

We were ambitious, and it was unlikely

that we succeed in this initiative...

REPUBLIC OF CHILE, PUMALÍN DOUGLAS TOMPKINS NATIONAL PARK

...to donate five new parks at once,

plus, the enlargement of three others.

But, it was now or never.

It was time.

Say "Pumalín".

Pumalin!

Which team.

We have a hundred committed players.

We want the government to keep them in their jobs.

But who knows what will happen?

FARM

We will see some of them, and not others.

But there are many people

who are there, on arrival.

We have formed a family.

A real...

...for 25 years.

We love each other, and we honor each other.

On behalf of all of us,

raise our glasses to Douglas and Pablo Carrasco.

- Yes. - Yes.

The weekend before the President came to the ceremony,

I read an article.

And noticed that two verbs were written in the conditional.

"We could", "we would", not "we will",

which made me say that one of

the parks, the largest of the eight,

sowed doubts.

For me, it was all or nothing.

Either we give them all or none.

If it doesn't work... we're taking a big risk.

After all that had happened to them,

all these years trying to convince

each government to carry out this great project

and not being able to reach the end, I

imagine, that indeed, she could have doubts.

She thought that everything could still change.

Up to one hour

before the ceremony.

I didn't know how it was going to be.

It's good.

Let's go.

When she arrived, I was pouting.

She wanted to go to Doug's grave,

in the small cemetery.

VALLE CHACABUCO CEMETERY

She gathered at her grave

and told me about Doug

and I realized that we had come to the end.

I had prepared two speeches,

in one, I evacuated my hatred and

my anger, in case things went wrong.

The other was a congratulatory speech.

A woman approached me,

and told me: "they put it".

"It's good".

I turned around and said to the president:

"It's a historic day."

I have a map of a place only the gods can imagine.

What in 1992 was a dream for Doug,

became the Pumalín National Park.

These parks belong to you.

Protect them with all your heart.

Choose life.

Choose beauty.

Lol, we did it!

Damn it. Guys...

He was someone I took under my wing,

a good friend, standing there with the President of Chile

signing these papers

of the creation of these parks, and, thin...

Yes. I... I was in tears.

I felt a lot of pride.

It's the biggest in the world.

- You must be proud. - Yes.

It was the largest land donation in human history.

Doug set the bar very high,

he would have been proud to have someone take it up a notch.

The larger the parks, the more nature is preserved.

Oh, damn it!

Look at him. Look look.

It's a condor.

Look at all that wild life

that she and Doug were able to preserve,

it stretches as far as the eye can see.

They have changed the way an entire continent looks at preservation.

People want to keep creating parks.

I am part of a project for a new park

extending to the borders of Tierra del Fuego.

300,000 hectares.

I had this idea and told Kris' organization about it.

It is called the Parc du Bout du Monde.

Doug was arguing with me and telling me

that I should follow him in his projects.

Now I got into it.

I was always the sweetest

between you two.

I adapted easily

and I was unstoppable

but...

What a life.

Yes.

Yes.

What a life.

TOMPKINS CONSERVATION, BY PARTNERING WITH CHILE AND ARGENTINA,

CREATED OR EXPANDED 17 NATIONAL PARKS

PROTECTING 6 MILLION HECTARES OF LAND, A NUMBER THAT WILL GROW.

REWILDING ARGENTINA AND REWILDING CHILE CONTINUE

TO REINTRODUCE ANIMAL SPECIES AND CREATE PARKS.

IN 2022, CONFORMING TO THE SPIRIT OF HIS FRIENDS,

YVON CHOUINARD SOLD PATAGONIA FOR $3 BILLION

WHICH HE DONATED FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE PLANET.

IN MEMORY OF JENNIFER RIDGEWAY