Couple Works to Restore Tierra Del Fuego

George T. Wittman’s newest blog post

Tierra del Fuego, the region that Doug and Kris Tompkins are working to preserve.

I recently came across an article about Doug and Kris Tompkins, two successful entrepreneurs, who last December donated more than 94,000 acres at the tip of South America, where they plan to form the base of a national park.  The land that they purchased some 15 years ago is part of the region Tierra Del Fuego, characterized by high mountains, rare forest and clear lakes and rivers.  The move comes as an intention to nationalize the area for nature and was part of an extraordinary endeavor that has made them the greatest private creators of protected landscapes in history.

At the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, the couple has so far purchased 2.2 million acres of Chile and Argentina, conserving and restoring it while sensitively providing access and other facilities, so that they can present it to the two countries for national parks.  To date, they have donated 600,000 acres to the government.  December’s addition catalyzed the Chilean government to add 276,000 adjoining acres of its own land.  The resulting Yendegaia National Park, which takes in both the Darwin Range and the Beagle Channel, protects the last frontier of sub-Antarctic beech forest and is the home of such critically endangered animals as the ruddy-headed goose.

Just seven months earlier, the couple donated 37,500 acres of the Andes to swell Argentina’s Perito Moreno national park.  They have also given two entire parks, one in Chile and one in Argentina, since 2000 and are close to handing over three more.  They have brought back tens of thousands of acres of degraded land, reintroduced locally extinct species, revived communities and built roads and trails, camp sites and visitor centers.

Protesters Clash in Crimea

George T. Wittman’s newest blog post

A elderly Tatar man, with flags waving behind him.

In the Crimea region of southern Ukraine, tensions have been erupting in the past couple weeks.  With Yanukovych no longer President, the region is divided between a pro-Putin Russian majority and a pro-Ukrainian Tatar minority.  On Wednesday, thousands of Russian and Tatar protesters clashed in Simferopol, the region’s capital city.  Tensions, previously nationalistic, developed a religious undertone, as the predominantly Muslim Tatars shouted “Allahu akbar”, which is Arabic for “God is great”.

The conflict in Ukraine, with Russia on one side and the west on the other, is eerily reminiscent of the Cold War.  Protests erupted in Ukraine after Yanukovych flaked out of a treaty with the European Union in favor of a bailout from Vladimir Putin.  On one side, Ukrainians protested the move, while the eastern and southern regions of the country, which are predominantly Russian, were pro-Putin.  Since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, the Russian majority in Crimea has been secretly wishing that Russia would annex their homeland.  Many of them are distrustful of Ukrainian nationalists, since some of them formed alliances with Nazi Germany during World War II.  Tatars, on the other hand, have no love for Russia; during World War II, Stalin deported many of them were deported en masse to Siberia and, since returning to Crimea, have little desire to become a part of Russia once again.  While most of the people on both sides have no desire for an armed conflict, small militant groups have been getting more and more active.  Pro-Russian groups have been creating “self-defense” units, while hard-line Cossack organizations, descended from the warriors who worked to expand and secure Russia’s borders, have no desire for peace.  While the Tatars are known to be peaceful, and have historically shown little interest in Islamic extremist movements, a small number of militant Tatars have started to talk about calling for a jihad.

No doubt, the protest’s religious undertones is disconcerting to the Russians, who have spent the past 20 years quelling Islamic separatist movements in the North Caucasus.  Since the ousting of Yanukovych, Putin has been ordering surprise military exercises on the Ukrainian border, furthering tensions between his country and the United States and betraying his desire to keep Ukraine under Russian influence.  It seems likely that Putin will stage a military intervention in Ukraine.  This expansionist policy, combined with the tensions in Crimea, pose two huge challenges that the new regime in Kiev has to face.

Yesterday, Russia’s military put tens of thousands of troops on Russia’s western border on alert for an exercise scheduled to last until March.  The Russian minister of defense also mentioned plans to tighten security at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, located in Crimea.  He insisted that Russia was only testing its military’s readiness to respond to a “crisis situation”, and not related to events in Ukraine.  In recent days, Russian military vehicles are making their presence felt on the streets of Crimea.  Road blocks flying Russian flags appeared on the main highways leading to Sebastopol, a Crimean city dominated by the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.

While Russia prepared for possible military intervention in Ukraine, American Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Russians doing so would “cost them”.  Kerry also was considering offering Ukraine a $1 billion package of loan guarantees, as well as aid to the Ukrainian government, to help deal with the economic crisis.  So far, the Russians have yet to recognize the legitimacy of the new Ukrainian regime, denouncing their actions as “inflammatory and divisive”.  While Russian officials have been talking, however, Putin himself has yet to comment on the crisis.  However, the clamor of the ethnic Russian majority in eastern and southern Ukraine might lead Russia to intervene.