The widow of American billionaire Douglas Tompkins has begun talks with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet over the donation of a vast nature reserve in southern Chile.
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins said she had formally offered Chile 400,000 hectares of land in Patagonia to be made into national parks.
The negotiations are expected to take two years.
Douglas Tompkins, who died in December 2015 in a kayaking accident, caused controversy in the 1990s by buying up land in southern Chile and Argentina to preserve it.
Last month, Kristine McDivitt met the new Argentinean President Mauricio Macri to donate to the country 150,000 hectares of threatened wetlands near the border with Brazil, with the aim of creating the Ibera National Park.
Douglas Tompkins was a globe-trotting rock climber and skier in his youth who was the co-founder of the outdoor clothing company The North Face.
In the early 1990s Douglas Tompinks got divorced, abandoned corporate life and moved to isolated southern Chile.
With his second wife Kristine, a former CEO of outdoor clothing company Patagonia Inc, he began buying up land in order to protect an ancient forest in Patagonia.
Over 25 years Douglas and Kristine Tompkins invested more than $375 million in conservation, donating part of their lands in Chile and Argentina to create four national parks.
After the meeting with President Michelle Bachelet, Kristine McDivitt said that the donation of the latest tranche of land to Chile was being made on condition that it would be used to create national parks which people could freely visit.
“The process will take a long time,” she said.
“We won’t be deciding the timing and I know there will be a compromise both sides will have to make to work through all the stages that will be necessary.
“We want people from all over the world to be able to visit these places. With the donation of these parks, Chile will be able offer a historic legacy to the world.”
In 2005, Douglas and Kristine Tompkins donated another tranche of land to Chile, 294 hectares near the Corcovado volcano, creating the sixth largest national park in Chile – the Corcovado National Park.
In a video posted online, Valentina Maureira, a 14-year-old Chilean girl, is asking President Michelle Bachelet to allow her to die.
The video has been viewed by thousands of people since the girl posted it.
Valentina Maureira suffers from cystic fibrosis, an incurable genetic disorder that attacks the lungs and other organs.
President Michelle Bachelet responded by visiting Valentina in hospital.
Her spokesman said Valentina Maureira could not be granted her wish but the government would pay for psychiatric treatment.
Valentina Maureira’s message has been viewed thousands of times on social networks, fuelling the debate in Chile over euthanasia, which is forbidden by law.
“I asked to speak urgently with the president, because I am tired of living with this disease,” the girl said.
She also said she had an older brother who died of the same illness when he was six years old so she knew what would happen to her.
Valentina Maureira’s father Fredy is supporting his daughter’s demand.
“This is so tough, but I have to respect her decision because she’s the one who’s suffering this illness,” AP quoted Fredy Maureira as saying.
Cystic fibrosis attacks the lungs and makes it difficult to breathe, among other symptoms.
Michelle Bachelet has won Chilean presidential election for a second time, defeating her run-off rival Evelyn Matthei by a wide margin.
With nearly 90% of the vote counted, leftist Michelle Bachelet had 62% to 38% for Evelyn Matthei, a former minister from the ruling centre-right coalition.
Michelle Bachelet first served as president between 2006 and 2010, after which she was obliged by electoral laws to stand down.
She narrowly missed out on outright victory in the first round last month.
“I am happy with the result and victory and I shall be a president for everyone in Chile,” Michelle Bachelet, 62, said as she received a congratulatory telephone call from outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, according to Reuters.
At a speech to supporters, Michelle Bachelet said: “I am proud to be your president-elect today. I am proud of the country we’ve built but I am even more proud of the country we will build.”
Michelle Bachelet has won Chilean presidential election for a second time, defeating her run-off rival Evelyn Matthei by a wide margin
She is now set to become the first leader in Chile to serve two terms since the military rule of General Augusto Pinochet in 1973 to 1990.
Upon hearing the news, her supporters have been celebrating on the streets by waving flags and sounding car horns in the capital Santiago.
“It is clear at this point. She won. And we congratulate her. Later on, I will go speak with her personally,” Evelyn Matthei, 60, told reporters.
Official results of Sunday’s run-off are expected soon. Turnout appears to have been lower than expected.
A pediatrician by training, Michelle Bachelet won 47% of the vote in the first round on November 17. Evelyn Matthei secured 25%.
Michelle Bachelet leads an alliance of her Socialist Party, Christian Democrats and Communists and has campaigned on policies designed to reduce the gap between rich and poor.
Chile is one of the richest countries in Latin America, but millions have staged protests over the past few years to push for a wider distribution of wealth and better education.
Michelle Bachelet wants to increase taxes to offer free university education and reform political and economic structures dating from the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Evelyn Matthei, 60, entered the race after two candidates of the centre-right alliance resigned earlier this year – one for alleged financial irregularities, the other one after struggling with depression. She has called for a continuation of the policies of outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, asserting that Chileans are “better off” now than when he came to power four years ago.
Left-wing candidate Michelle Bachelet appears as the favorite in the presidential run-off in Chile.
She faces Evelyn Matthei, a former minister in the governing centre-right coalition.
Michelle Bachelet, who was president in 2006-10, won the first round last month, but failed to secure an outright majority.
The contenders are the daughters of air force generals, once friends, who found themselves on opposite sides when General Augusto Pinochet seized power in 1973.
Polls across Chile are due to open at 08:00 local time and will close 10 hours later.
A paediatrician by training, Michelle Bachelet, 62, won 47% of the vote in the first round on November 17. Evelyn Matthei secured 25%.
Everything suggests Michelle Bachelet will comfortably win the run-off.
She leads an alliance of her Socialist Party, Christian Democrats and Communists and has campaigned on policies designed to reduce the gap between rich and poor.
Left-wing candidate Michelle Bachelet faces Evelyn Matthei, a former minister in the governing centre-right coalition
Chile is one of the richest countries in Latin America, but millions have staged protests over the past few years to push for a wider distribution of wealth and better education.
Michelle Bachelet wants to increase taxes to offer free university education and reform political and economic structures dating from the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who ruled from 1973 to 1990.
Her manifesto this time is much more radical than before, our correspondent says.
Michelle Bachelet was constitutionally barred from serving a second successive term but was very popular when she left office.
Evelyn Matthei, 60, entered the race after two candidates of the centre-right alliance resigned earlier this year – one for alleged financial irregularities, the other one after struggling with depression.
She has called for a continuation of the policies of outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, asserting that Chileans are “better off” now than when he came to power four years ago.
As children in the 1950s, the current rivals were neighbors and used to play together on the airbase where their fathers worked.
Evelyn Matthei’s father, Fernando, rose through the ranks to run a military school.
Michelle Bachelet’s father, Alberto, who was given a job in the Socialist administration overthrown by General Pinochet, died of a heart attack in 1974.
An investigation concluded that the 51-year-old general probably died of heart problems aggravated by torture at the military academy.
A judge ruled earlier this year that General Fernando Matthei had no knowledge of or involvement in the torture.
The Chilean lower house of congress and half the senate are also being elected.
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