Page 58 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #04

CHILE’S
PARK

PLEDGE

One of the founders of
the American clothing Bear: Wild Wonders of Europe/Lesniewski/NPL; guanaco: Linde Waidhofer; rabb ts: HSI
brands The North Face
and Patagonia has had his
dream of creating protected
state wildernesses out of
privately bought land in
Chile come to fruition.
Doug Tompkins died in
2015, but in January his wife
Kristine Tompkins handed
The Carpathian Mountains over 400,000ha of land to
are one of Europe's most the Chilean government
important wildlife areas which have become
and home to brown bears.
Patagonia and Pumalín
National Parks.
PARK FOR A WILDER EUROPE has expanded three existing
As part of the deal, Chile
national parks with 3.6m ha
None of Europe’s national parks of 200,000ha, with alpine areas, pioneered in Chile (see ‘Chile’s of federal land.
are globally famous – but that forests and all the wildlife in it – a park pledge’, right). Tompkins, when he was
could be about to change. complete European ecosystem,” “We’ve got the largest areas president of Tompkins
Promberger adds. of virgin forests in Europe with Conservation, said the deal
Conservationists have revealed The foundation is backed by wolves, lynx andbrown bears,” was “a major milestone of
how they plan to create the philanthropists such as Paul Promberger says. The Carpathian our first 25 years of work”.
first European national park Lister, owner of the Alladale Mountains are regarded as one of
with a sense of wilderness, estate in the Scottish Highlands, Europe’s most important regions Chile has created two
to rival iconic ones such as and the Danishmulti-billionaire for wildlife and biodiversity. new national parks
Yellowstone in the US. Anders Holch Povlsen, whoalso Promberger believes the out of private land.
Rewilding expert Christoph owns several Scottish estates. opportunities for attracting
Promberger is spearheading To date it has bought 21,000ha wildlife-watchers and others
the initiative for Foundation of land in the Fagaras Mountains, wanting a taste of the wild are
Conservation Carpathia in and secured 36,000ha of hunting huge. But a more stablepolitical
Romania’s Fagaras Mountains concessionswherewildlife is situation in Romania – it had two
in the southern Carpathians. fully protected. changes of government in 2017 –
“We have 330 national parksin But in the long term, the is needed, he says. James Fair
Europe, but there’s not one that foundation’s plan is to donate its
everyone knows likeYellowstone landholdings to the Romanian + FIND OUT MORE
or Kruger,” hesays. government in return for the Foundation Conservation
Ant: Steve Hopkin/ardea.com; Frankhauser: Ullstein B d/Getty; orangutan: Frans Lanting/FLPA
“The Fagaras Mountains has state protecting the entire area Carpathia www.carpathia.org
the potential for a national park as a national park, a model

CONSERVATION
briefing
ANCIENT ANTS I HAVE DIRECTEED THE
Richmond Park in south-west ` BUSINESS TO PU URSUE
London is home to 400,000
anthills and 3 billion ants weighing AN AUDIT OF SEAWOORLD.”
7.5 tonnes, according to a citizen
science project initiated by The
Royal Parks charity. The oldest Thomas Cook Group chief executive officer
anthills, created byyellow meadow Peter Fankhauser responds to a request
from the animal rights group PETA for it
ants, had been there for at least 150 to stop selling any tickets to SeaWorld
years, the study found. because of its policy of keeping orcas and
other dolphins in captivity.
58 BBC Wildlife