Abstract

Patagonia has long been considered a Terra Australis res Nillius: the lands of the south with no master. Since the Spanish Conquista this space has been the object of many collective utopias, those of discoverers, soldiers and missionaries, and individual ones, those of merchants and adventurers and sportsmen, eager for wealth and glory. Towards the end of the 1980’s a new idealization of nature, the wilderness, changed Patagonia into a “must” to discover and then to safeguard against the pressure of industrial, agricultural, mining, forestry, hydroelectric, and fisheries exploitation. The eco-philanthropic utopia of the American millionaire Douglas Tompkins finds draws its origins from an expedition to Mount Fitzroy in 1968 but is part of a North American tradition of the nineteenth century. Convinced of the imperious need to safeguard South American biodiversity, he proposes the “Next Economy”, based on the Deep Ecology ideals. He buys land for “the value of beauty and harmony” and shapes his parks for “the good of humanity” (Tompkins, 2012). Through a biogeographic approach, this article shows how an individual project has created a new imaginary, both cultural and touristic. The work of an artist defines a new geography, aesthetic, utopian and individualistic, that questions us, beyond the territorial and political issues associated with the conservation and creation of private parks. Books, films and graphic works in favor of ecology and against industrialization and technology, change views actors have on these remote lands. Eco activists and ecotourism actors praise his contribution to tackle socio-environmental issues. The rural world, entrepreneurs and defenders of the spirit of the pioneers, clearers of virgin lands, criticize his opposition to development and lack of respect for their way of life. Nevertheless they sell their land to rich westerners and Chileans who want to posses their own private parks at world’s end while hopping that tourism will ensure their future.