American Buys Slices of South America

June 11th, 2007 in Space & Earth / Environment
American Buys Slices of South America (AP)

The Pumalin Park in the south of Chile, owned by U.S. businessman Douglas Tompkins, is seen in this undated picture. Tompkins now owns well over 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) in Chile and Argentina, a combined area larger than Belgium he says he wants to save from agribusiness and development. (AP Photo/Carlos Quezada/ La Tercera)

(AP) -- 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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