Eco barons

It is pretty hard for a country to turn down a gift of 300,000 hectares, explains Douglas Tompkins, 64, the de facto dean of this new class of eco barons, who has spent the past decade and US 200 million spearheading a new movement called Wildlands Philanthropy. 

Of all his adventures, one stands out—the one that he and Yvon Chouinard still talk about the most, and that seemed to mark a turning point for both men, launching them on entirely new trajectories in their careers and their lives. This was their six-month climbing, driving, and filmmaking odyssey to Patagonia in 1968. Chouinard has called it his most enjoyable adventure. Tompkins says it planted the seeds for the eco baron he was to become two decades later. 

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