Rewilding the Land, Restoring Ourselves

A Quarter of a Century

For a quarter of a century, with her late husband Douglas Tompkins, Kristine has worked to conserve and rewild vast areas of our world. Fighting against nature destruction, neglect and exploitation, together they purchased more than 2 million acres of land in Chile and Argentina to restore to wilderness.

Kristine Tompkins is an American conservationist, former CEO of Patagonia Inc., and President and Co-founder of Tompkins Conservation. Kristine is also a UN Environment Patron, recognised for her commitment to protected areas of the planet.

Through Tompkins Conservation, Kristine has been instrumental in the creation of 13 national parks in Chile and Argentina and conserving 14.5 million acres of wilderness.

The creation of parks is the starting point for the more important restoration and rewilding of their ecosystems to become whole and functional again. This includes bringing back missing species like the jaguar in Argentina or the extremely endangered huemul in Chile, which have key ecological functions.

Image credit: Tompkins Conservation

Kristine Tompkins – Master Rewilder

So what does that mean in reality? In the wetlands of Iberá in Argentina, this requires the reintroduction of jaguars and giant river otters to the land, together with a level of commitment from local people that is almost unprecedented. This process makes stakeholder engagement look like a party game! So it’s not enough to buy land, reintroduce species, and reverse damage caused by pollution and deforestation. Rewilding demands a high degree of diplomacy, tact and understanding. It also demands imaginative approaches to human behaviour, and ongoing support for marginalised or often hostile communities. Above all, rewilding calls for dedication – for the long-term dedication of time, money and energy to a massive and unpredictable process that can end in failure – but if we don’t learn to do it successfully, it may be the end of us all!

Join us Where the Wild Things are

Kristine Tompkins has lessons to teach us. In a 2020 TED Talk entitled, “Let’s make the world wild again” she talks about how each human is impacted by every other human, and how each of our actions affects the health of the planet. None of us is on a solo journey, no matter how insulated we feel in our urban sprawl and our techno-bubble, we live or die, based in part on what those jaguars and giant otters are getting up to in their marshes.

Making the World Wild Again

While it can be hard for us to grasp, given our often limited experience of genuine wilderness and our even more limited opportunities to engage with it on its own terms, it is vital that humanity learns this lesson.

Kristine Tompkins is giving us all a chance to learn – partnering with Satopia and Journeys with Purpose, she’s speaking live at a free online event on 21 January 2021 exploring why and how we all need to work together and sharing stories from Tompkins Conservation – one of the greatest successes in nature conservation.

The event will take place on 21st of January 2021 at 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET

We invite you to register for this conservation and rewilding virtual event that will be held on Zoom here.