CAMPBELL: Summer in Patagonia. Fresh snow falls on the Andes mountains. A bitter, Antarctic wind sweeps over the horizon, glaciers crack and split.
Patagonia has long occupied a mythical place in South American culture, akin to Australias outback or North Americas Great Plains.
Its a vast region of open skies and sprawling landscapes, straddling the southern extremes of Argentina and Chile. Music
CAMPBELL: Huge sheep and cattle stations once enriched Argentina and shaped its image as a nation. Men like Don Carlos Gelos, a 61 year old shearer, could not imagine being anywhere else.
DON CARLOS GELOS: Ive worked on the land almost all my life. I can manage quite well. I can do construction work and a bit of everything, but thats not what I like I like to be on the land, among the sheep, with animals. I like dogs. I like all types of animals.
CAMPBELL: But these days he just performs his skills for tourists. The properties he worked on are broke; the industry he spent his life in has all but disappeared.
DON CARLOS GELOS: Tourism complicates things somewhat for me. Firstly people come, like you, and we cant understand each other when we speak. I prefer to do other work, like I used to do before --working independently.
CAMPBELL: Its little more than a century since Europeans settled throughout Patagonia white farmers from Britain, Germany and Argentina, building sprawling sheep and cattle farms in the steppe and forests, but Patagonia is once again at a major turning point as the farms they built wither from over grazing and economic malaise. Its a crisis that could change the very nature of a place some call the edge of the world.
CAMPBELL: In less than a generation, much of the heartland of Argentinas wool industry has turned to wasteland. The giant province of Santa Cruz once had 1400 working sheep stations called estancias. Today, more than 500 are bankrupt.
CAMPBELL: Jorge Lemos was one of the few who saw it coming. He had worked the land for thirty years and watched in dismay as farmers began cashing in on high wool prices while forgetting what the land could support.
JORGE LEMOS: Look how the land has turned to desert. There was a going price for wool and when it went up, people who had four or five thousand sheep, got more sheep so they could harvest more wool.
What they didnt consider was that too much would production would ruin the land. In the end the price of land dropped.
C
AMPBELL: In the 1990s, the wool price crashed and in 2001 Argentinas currency collapsed. Suddenly, the grand estancias could neither sell their sheep nor keep them. The land was finally exhausted. Within a few years, Santa Cruzs sheep herd of seven million, fell by 90%.
JORGE LEMOS: And for that reason today the land is very cheap, because there are no pastures, absolutely nothing, so thats why the economys completely different.
CAMPBELL: The bigger, more picturesque estancias close to towns have managed to salvage something from tourism. They breed sheep and cattle just for show and employ guides to give outsiders a feel of how life use to be. But only a few property have the means or capacity to change.
CAMPBELL: The ruined, windswept estancias that couldnt switch to tourism have simply sold up. Their land made almost worthless by economic collapse and years of over grazing, but the buyers have not been fellow Argentineans, few of whom could afford to leave the land idle for years to regenerate. Instead, wealthy foreigners have been buying up huge tracks of Patagonia from American tycoons, to European corporations, even a Whos Who of Hollywood celebrities.
CAMPBELL: The biggest brand here now is the Italian clothing company Benetton, which snapped up nine hundred thousand hectares of potentially prime wool growing country. Music
Other major buyers include the founder of CNN, Ted Turner, and the philanthropist and global trader George Soros. Its also proved attractive for a cigarette company that trades on the image of rugged outdoor freedom.
JORGE LEMO: Marlboro and other big companies have bought a lot of land on the banks of the Limay River.
CAMPBELL: Its been good news for some of the former landowners but deeply troubling for many Patagonians.
DON CARLOS GELOS: There are Argentines, even in Calafate, who have tried to get land to build hotels,
and obstacles are placed in their way. But when a foreigner comes, they just sell it to them. Id rather have an Argentine.
CAMPBELL: The concerns arent just parochial, theyre deeply rooted in the Patagonias blood-soaked history.
The first land grab here was in the 19th century when whites took the land of the indigenous people they called los Indios the Indians. Tribes like the Mapuche found their hunting grounds cut off by white farmers and slowly lost their rights to their own land. Some fear history is being repeated.
JORGE LEMO: There are a lot of new landowners, and they dont allow thoroughfare through their properties.
This is an echo of 150 years ago when they first put up fences to control the Indians. I feel like we are the Indians of the 21st century because there are so few of us here in Patagonia.
CAMPBELL: The concerns have resonated in Buenos Aires, where forces of globalisation have left many feeling powerless over their countrys destiny.
Marta Maffei is an opposition deputy in the Argentine Congress.
MARTA MAFFEI: Forty-three per cent of land in our country is virtually in foreign hands.
They are virtually States-- and not only due to their size. They are States because they control the water, they change the course of rivers, they control access by Argentine citizens to their own natural beauties to their lakes and rivers and seas.
CAMPBELL: The government dismisses fears that foreigners are taking over the land. Argentinas President, Nestor Kirchner, welcomes the new investment as a way of renewing a region crippled by economic strife.
PRESIDENT NESTOR KIRCHNER: The main thing is that the investments be productive -- that they generate economic growth and respect the environment.
CAMPBELL: Its an issue that hounds the centre-left President every time he goes home. Hes a former Governor of Patagonia and his wife Christina is the Senator for Santa Cruz. Today theyve come to her electorate to open a foreign owned five star hotel.
The hotel opening is a symbol of just how much the character of rural Patagonia is changing.
El Calafate was once a sleepy farming village servicing nearby estancias. Its now a booming resort town, crowded with restaurants, coaches, tour companies and souvenir stores all geared to the tourist dollar.
CHRISTINA KIRCHNER: I dont think its tourism versus the wool industry. I think you can have both. Diversification is precisely what makes the economy of a country strong. Besides, tourists love to se the shearing and the whole wool experience, so on the contrary, they are absolutely complementary for the whole province and the country.
CAMPBELL: El Calafates fortune was to be near Patagonias biggest natural attraction the awe inspiring Perito Moreno glacier. Its growing popularity is a direct result of Argentinas economic woes. The weak peso has made Patagonia a relatively cheap destination for anyone with hard currency. While Argentines welcome outsiders visiting their land, many object to the ease with which theyve been able to buy it.
MARTA MAFFEI: Our country has been handing over without regulation the production and ownership of its territory,
to such an extent what we now dont control what is produced nor what is consumed within our borders.
CAMPBELL: But not every foreign purchase is seen as a sell out. Even the harshest critics of the land sales can see a potential for renewal.
This is Monte Leon, Argentinas first ever coastal national park and home to among other things, tens of thousands of penguins and sea lions. A few years ago this sixty thousand hectare property was owned by just one family. It was sold for $1.7 million US dollars to an organisation headed by a American businesswoman. Then it was given back to the people.
KRIS MCDIVITT: You cant wait for governments to protect the biodiversity and the bio-richness of their counties and I think that
individuals need to step up to the plate and pay their rent for living on the planet.
CAMPBELL: Kris McDivitt is the former CEO of the Patagonia Clothing Company, named after the region she grew to love travelling through South America. For the past decade shes been putting her money into buying up ruined estancias and turning them into national parks.
The latest acquisition, this property on the Chilean side of Patagonia is the most ambitious, a working station that will gradually become a wildlife haven, the gauchos retraining to be naturalist guides.
KRIS MCDIVITT: Well I dont think 130 years ago anybody was thinking about how, what was best or bad for the land.
I mean especially in an area like Patagonia that had such a low population. Who could imagine, you cant imagine it not lasting. What could possibly, theres so much of it, what could possibly happen to this? And yet it happens very quickly.
Music
CAMPBELL: Across the frontier in Argentina, Monte Leon is showing the first signs of regeneration. The land is slowly repairing itself as native guanacos take the place of imported sheep and cattle. Its one of three Argentine properties bought by her Patagonia Conservation Trust. Even so, Kris McDivitt has had a hard time overcoming suspicion about her motives.
KRIS MCDIVITT: In Chile and Argentina there is not a long history of philanthropy of any kind and certainly not in terms of environmental projects.
The best we can do is say okay, look at whats actually happening. What are we doing with these lands? Were turning them back over into something for the public access and to the national patrimony.
CAMPBELL: The old ways of Patagonia are slipping away. The descendants of those who tried to tame its wilderness are struggling to find their place. Much of the land they came to love has been exhausted. Patagonias future now rests with a new wave of settlers, both those who will try to save the land and those who wish to conquer it again.
Patagonia has long occupied a mythical place in South American culture, akin to Australias outback or North Americas Great Plains.
Its a vast region of open skies and sprawling landscapes, straddling the southern extremes of Argentina and Chile. Music
CAMPBELL: Huge sheep and cattle stations once enriched Argentina and shaped its image as a nation. Men like Don Carlos Gelos, a 61 year old shearer, could not imagine being anywhere else.
DON CARLOS GELOS: Ive worked on the land almost all my life. I can manage quite well. I can do construction work and a bit of everything, but thats not what I like I like to be on the land, among the sheep, with animals. I like dogs. I like all types of animals.
CAMPBELL: But these days he just performs his skills for tourists. The properties he worked on are broke; the industry he spent his life in has all but disappeared.
DON CARLOS GELOS: Tourism complicates things somewhat for me. Firstly people come, like you, and we cant understand each other when we speak. I prefer to do other work, like I used to do before --working independently.
CAMPBELL: Its little more than a century since Europeans settled throughout Patagonia white farmers from Britain, Germany and Argentina, building sprawling sheep and cattle farms in the steppe and forests, but Patagonia is once again at a major turning point as the farms they built wither from over grazing and economic malaise. Its a crisis that could change the very nature of a place some call the edge of the world.
CAMPBELL: In less than a generation, much of the heartland of Argentinas wool industry has turned to wasteland. The giant province of Santa Cruz once had 1400 working sheep stations called estancias. Today, more than 500 are bankrupt.
CAMPBELL: Jorge Lemos was one of the few who saw it coming. He had worked the land for thirty years and watched in dismay as farmers began cashing in on high wool prices while forgetting what the land could support.
JORGE LEMOS: Look how the land has turned to desert. There was a going price for wool and when it went up, people who had four or five thousand sheep, got more sheep so they could harvest more wool.
What they didnt consider was that too much would production would ruin the land. In the end the price of land dropped.
C
AMPBELL: In the 1990s, the wool price crashed and in 2001 Argentinas currency collapsed. Suddenly, the grand estancias could neither sell their sheep nor keep them. The land was finally exhausted. Within a few years, Santa Cruzs sheep herd of seven million, fell by 90%.
JORGE LEMOS: And for that reason today the land is very cheap, because there are no pastures, absolutely nothing, so thats why the economys completely different.
CAMPBELL: The bigger, more picturesque estancias close to towns have managed to salvage something from tourism. They breed sheep and cattle just for show and employ guides to give outsiders a feel of how life use to be. But only a few property have the means or capacity to change.
CAMPBELL: The ruined, windswept estancias that couldnt switch to tourism have simply sold up. Their land made almost worthless by economic collapse and years of over grazing, but the buyers have not been fellow Argentineans, few of whom could afford to leave the land idle for years to regenerate. Instead, wealthy foreigners have been buying up huge tracks of Patagonia from American tycoons, to European corporations, even a Whos Who of Hollywood celebrities.
CAMPBELL: The biggest brand here now is the Italian clothing company Benetton, which snapped up nine hundred thousand hectares of potentially prime wool growing country. Music
Other major buyers include the founder of CNN, Ted Turner, and the philanthropist and global trader George Soros. Its also proved attractive for a cigarette company that trades on the image of rugged outdoor freedom.
JORGE LEMO: Marlboro and other big companies have bought a lot of land on the banks of the Limay River.
CAMPBELL: Its been good news for some of the former landowners but deeply troubling for many Patagonians.
DON CARLOS GELOS: There are Argentines, even in Calafate, who have tried to get land to build hotels,
and obstacles are placed in their way. But when a foreigner comes, they just sell it to them. Id rather have an Argentine.
CAMPBELL: The concerns arent just parochial, theyre deeply rooted in the Patagonias blood-soaked history.
The first land grab here was in the 19th century when whites took the land of the indigenous people they called los Indios the Indians. Tribes like the Mapuche found their hunting grounds cut off by white farmers and slowly lost their rights to their own land. Some fear history is being repeated.
JORGE LEMO: There are a lot of new landowners, and they dont allow thoroughfare through their properties.
This is an echo of 150 years ago when they first put up fences to control the Indians. I feel like we are the Indians of the 21st century because there are so few of us here in Patagonia.
CAMPBELL: The concerns have resonated in Buenos Aires, where forces of globalisation have left many feeling powerless over their countrys destiny.
Marta Maffei is an opposition deputy in the Argentine Congress.
MARTA MAFFEI: Forty-three per cent of land in our country is virtually in foreign hands.
They are virtually States-- and not only due to their size. They are States because they control the water, they change the course of rivers, they control access by Argentine citizens to their own natural beauties to their lakes and rivers and seas.
CAMPBELL: The government dismisses fears that foreigners are taking over the land. Argentinas President, Nestor Kirchner, welcomes the new investment as a way of renewing a region crippled by economic strife.
PRESIDENT NESTOR KIRCHNER: The main thing is that the investments be productive -- that they generate economic growth and respect the environment.
CAMPBELL: Its an issue that hounds the centre-left President every time he goes home. Hes a former Governor of Patagonia and his wife Christina is the Senator for Santa Cruz. Today theyve come to her electorate to open a foreign owned five star hotel.
The hotel opening is a symbol of just how much the character of rural Patagonia is changing.
El Calafate was once a sleepy farming village servicing nearby estancias. Its now a booming resort town, crowded with restaurants, coaches, tour companies and souvenir stores all geared to the tourist dollar.
CHRISTINA KIRCHNER: I dont think its tourism versus the wool industry. I think you can have both. Diversification is precisely what makes the economy of a country strong. Besides, tourists love to se the shearing and the whole wool experience, so on the contrary, they are absolutely complementary for the whole province and the country.
CAMPBELL: El Calafates fortune was to be near Patagonias biggest natural attraction the awe inspiring Perito Moreno glacier. Its growing popularity is a direct result of Argentinas economic woes. The weak peso has made Patagonia a relatively cheap destination for anyone with hard currency. While Argentines welcome outsiders visiting their land, many object to the ease with which theyve been able to buy it.
MARTA MAFFEI: Our country has been handing over without regulation the production and ownership of its territory,
to such an extent what we now dont control what is produced nor what is consumed within our borders.
CAMPBELL: But not every foreign purchase is seen as a sell out. Even the harshest critics of the land sales can see a potential for renewal.
This is Monte Leon, Argentinas first ever coastal national park and home to among other things, tens of thousands of penguins and sea lions. A few years ago this sixty thousand hectare property was owned by just one family. It was sold for $1.7 million US dollars to an organisation headed by a American businesswoman. Then it was given back to the people.
KRIS MCDIVITT: You cant wait for governments to protect the biodiversity and the bio-richness of their counties and I think that
individuals need to step up to the plate and pay their rent for living on the planet.
CAMPBELL: Kris McDivitt is the former CEO of the Patagonia Clothing Company, named after the region she grew to love travelling through South America. For the past decade shes been putting her money into buying up ruined estancias and turning them into national parks.
The latest acquisition, this property on the Chilean side of Patagonia is the most ambitious, a working station that will gradually become a wildlife haven, the gauchos retraining to be naturalist guides.
KRIS MCDIVITT: Well I dont think 130 years ago anybody was thinking about how, what was best or bad for the land.
I mean especially in an area like Patagonia that had such a low population. Who could imagine, you cant imagine it not lasting. What could possibly, theres so much of it, what could possibly happen to this? And yet it happens very quickly.
Music
CAMPBELL: Across the frontier in Argentina, Monte Leon is showing the first signs of regeneration. The land is slowly repairing itself as native guanacos take the place of imported sheep and cattle. Its one of three Argentine properties bought by her Patagonia Conservation Trust. Even so, Kris McDivitt has had a hard time overcoming suspicion about her motives.
KRIS MCDIVITT: In Chile and Argentina there is not a long history of philanthropy of any kind and certainly not in terms of environmental projects.
The best we can do is say okay, look at whats actually happening. What are we doing with these lands? Were turning them back over into something for the public access and to the national patrimony.
CAMPBELL: The old ways of Patagonia are slipping away. The descendants of those who tried to tame its wilderness are struggling to find their place. Much of the land they came to love has been exhausted. Patagonias future now rests with a new wave of settlers, both those who will try to save the land and those who wish to conquer it again.