American buys slices of South America
LOS ESTEROS DEL IBERA, Argentina - 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.
Ref. https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070609/ap_on_...uying_argentina
I have mixed feelings about this. I know Tompkins have been doing this since the 90's but I am not so sure about his intentions. He is buying massive state lands with great water resources that he promises would turn to the State in the future as natural resource places. Sounds a bit fishy.
The province where he holds most of his land is going to put in place a law that stops foreigners from buying certain pieces of land and Tompkins says that move would be unconstitutional and will grant legal intervention (obviously he is planning to expand and purchase more land but will be stopped). Argentina is very rich in flaura and fauna and seeing how the state of the world and its natural resources are right now, I am not surprised of all these purchases. I just do not buy it the fact he is doing it for environment purposes only.
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