Read the full transcript of conservationist Kristine McDivitt Tompkins’ talk titled “A Bold Plan to Rewild the Earth — at Massive Scale” at TED Talks 2024 conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
The Decimation of Wild Nature
I’m of the first generation in all of human history to witness the decimation of wild nature taking place in every corner of the planet. This isn’t a mystery; we know this. At the end of the day, it’s simple mathematics. We humans expand our footprint, habitat on land and sea shrinks, wildlife numbers fall, temperatures rise, and human communities suffer. And this is what keeps me up at night.
But I’m also busy. Edward Abbey, the godfather of environmental activism, once said, “Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” And for me, the antidote to despair is to act. The most direct action at Tompkins Conservation is to be part of the global movement of rewilding the Earth.
Rewilding: A Simple and Miraculous Solution
So what is rewilding anyway? It means allowing ancient nature the space and the freedom to heal itself. And when that’s not possible, actively restoring territories and bringing back species who have gone missing. Rewilding is both simple and miraculous. I know this because I have lived it.
Here’s what I think can happen if we take on rewilding the continent at a massive scale. Because frankly, we’re kind of running out of time saving the natural world. So if there was ever a moment for a Hail Mary pass in conservation, I think this is it.
The Beginning of a Conservation Journey
30 years ago, when my late husband, Doug Tompkins, and I began working on land conservation projects, we weren’t really sure what we were going to do, but we knew we would invest everything we had in terms of our time and resources to slow down the freight train of development that we saw destroying the natural world. As climbers, ski racers, wildlife people, we had long begun to witness with our own eyes, and it was time for us to react to those things that were oh so clear to us.
For the two of us, that meant making a 180-degree shift of our business lives. Doug, as the cofounder of “The North Face” and then “Esprit,” and for me, it was retiring from Patagonia company after 25 years, 18 of those years as CEO. We moved to a roadless area at the tip of South America, at the foot of a very deep fjord in Chile. We committed ourselves to saving as much wild habitat as we could, at first by simply buying land, ultimately acquiring over two million acres of key habitat in Chile and Argentina.
Restoring Degraded Lands
Some of these tracks were still wild, but some were deeply degraded after a century of livestock overgrazing and deforestation and other threats. We formed teams on the ground and worked with communities and local, regional, national governments. And partnering with now 12 presidential administrations in the two countries, we gave back everything that we put together in terms of conservation lands by donating them in the form of new national parks.
So far, we’ve initiated 15 new national parks, protecting over 15 million acres. We came to know, without a doubt, that landscapes can recover, even those forests, grasslands, wetlands hardest hit.
The Importance of Keystone Species
But the more we worked saving and restoring lands and seascapes, the more we came to realize that you can’t have healthy ecosystems if keystone species are missing. As Lois Crisler said, “Landscape without wildlife is just scenery.” And we never saw ourselves as being in the scenery business.
Protecting large-scale territories is essential. You can’t paint a masterpiece unless you have the canvas. But once the territory is secured long-term, we had to commit ourselves to go beyond land conservation and set our goals to leaving behind fully functioning ecosystems. Figuring out what species are missing or whose numbers are low and fragile, and commit to bringing them back.
Success Stories in Rewilding
And that’s exactly what we’re doing. Today, Patagonia grasslands, temperate rainforests are safe and whole, and nearly two million acres of wetlands have been protected. A total of 24 native species, which were nearly extinct, are again roaming free and reproducing in their rightful territories, from apex predators that influence entire ecosystems to seed bearers, herbivores, smaller predators, each playing out their essential role in the theater that we call life.
In Chile, the population of the nearly extinct huemul deer is no longer losing ground. And after a century of livestock grazing in the Patagonia grasslands, which celebrated the killing of predators such as cougars and foxes, they are back and they are thriving.
The Need for Massive Scale Conservation
But all of this experience has shown us that this is still not enough. The speed and power of the climate crisis and the extinction crisis demand, I think, that we change our tactics again, and this time it’s got to be on a massive scale.
Yes, the parks offer refuge from the forces of industrialization, and we know ecosystems can be restored. And very importantly, we know that when people reconnect with nature, it inspires them to protect it. But at the same time, if you think about it, parks, even the massive wild parks, are islands. They’re not connected. And this is a huge problem because in order to survive and become resilient, ecosystems need to be connected. Sometimes extensions of territories and sometimes as stepping stones. One way or the other, flora and fauna have to be able to expand over territories as they once did.
Reconnecting the Wild Fabric of South America
So how is this done? It requires expanding strategies into the next 20 years. We have to reconnect the wild fabric of South America, both from Chile and Argentina. Our 30 years of conservation work is radiating up and out now, reconnecting habitat and species back into one full continent.
Luckily, and not surprisingly, Mother Nature has already built the literal road map to make this possible.