At the extreme south of the American continent, where the land thins until it meets icy oceans, sub-Antarctic forests and glaciers, Chile is preparing to take a historic step to protect the environment. The Government is in fact working on the creation of the Cape Froward National Parka new national park that will protect one of the most remote and fragile ecosystems on the planet, overlooking the Strait of Magellan, right “at the end of the world map”.
The future park will extend for approximately 150 thousand hectares and will include pristine forests, peat bogs, glaciers and long stretches of coast. An area of extraordinary ecological value, designed to become a safe refuge for threatened species and to maintain the balance of ecosystems which, despite their apparent harshness, are extremely vulnerable to human impact.
Behind the birth of this new park there is a key figure of global environmentalism: Douglas TompkinsAmerican entrepreneur and philanthropist, known for being the co-founder of The North Face and for having then dedicated the second part of his life to nature conservation. Through the Rewilding Chile Foundation, Tompkins has advanced a radical and far-sighted vision: returning the land to nature.
Last November, the foundation donated 127,000 hectares of territory to the Chilean state, setting a specific condition: the official creation of a national park within two years. A gesture that is part of a long history of similar donations, thanks to which some of the largest national parks in South America have already been created in Patagonia.
The Cape Froward National Park will host the southernmost population of huemulthe Andean deer in danger of extinction and the national symbol of Chile. Furthermore, its waters are among the most productive in the South of the world and support a vast marine ecosystem populated by orcas, whales and sea lions. Protecting this area therefore means safeguarding not only the land, but also the sea.
But environmental protection is not the only objective: the park is also thought of as a driver of economic and sustainable development for the region. It will be the first national park within the municipality of Punta Arenas, the capital of the southernmost region of Chile, and will offer new opportunities linked to responsible, low-impact tourism.
In an era marked by climate crisis and loss of biodiversity, the birth of Cape Froward National Park it represents much more than a new protected area: it is the concrete symbol of a different vision of the future. Without a doubt that of Douglas Tompkinswhich transformed private wealth into a collective inheritance, demonstrating that even at the edge of the world it is still possible to choose to defend life.
