The largest private land donation in Chilean history is providing more than 400,000 hectares for a network of new national parks in the country's rugged and beautiful south.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed the deal with Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, the widow of American conservationist Doug Tompkins who started the North Face outdoor clothing company and cofounded women's wear maker Espirit.  He also started Tompkins Conservation, which specializes in creating national parks and protecting threatened ecosystems in Argentina and Chile.

McDivitt and Bachelet sign the deal

Viewing the new park

The land donated this week will create three new national parks which are hoped to be the beginning in a chain of 17 new parks reaching from spanning more than 1,500 miles from Puerto Montt to Cape Horn.  The plan is to eventually increase Chile's national parkland by more than four million hectares.

Since Doug Tompkins death in a kayaking accident in southern Chile last year, Ms. McDivitt has thrown herself into the work of Tompkins Conservation non-stop to permanently protect from development the millions of acres the couple acquired over a quarter century.

Photos Courtesy Government of Chile

"I wish my husband, Doug, whose vision inspired today's historic pledge, were here on this memorable day.  Our team and I feel his absence deeply," she said.  "But I know that if Doug were here today, he would speak of national parks being one of the greatest expressions of democracy that a country can realize, preserving the masterpieces of a nation for all of its citizenry."

(Photos courtesy Government of Chile)