As a man who starts his day with fencing practice, Douglas Tompkins knows better than most that winning a battle requires a nifty combination of defense and offense. Those are lessons that are serving well this US billionaire who left behind the world of business--notably co-founding the North Face and Esprit clothing brands --to focus his investments in the protection of nature.
湯普金斯每天起床第一件事就是練習擊劍，因此他比大多數人都清楚，要在一場競賽中勝出，必須進可攻、退可守，兩者靈巧地結合。那些練劍課程，對這位美國億萬富豪非常受用，他拋開共同創辦的知名企業王國North Face和Esprit兩大服飾品牌，把投資重心放在自然保育上。
His first project was in Canada and he has since created reserves in Argentina and Chile. He focuses on securing large, ecologically strategic terrains (usually big water reserves) and trying to recover undeveloped and untrammeled nature. Afterwards, he legally assures the irreversibility of this procedure and donates the lands to the administrations of national parks. The idea behind this is that national treasures are best preserved if not privatized.
他第一個計畫在加拿大，之後在阿根廷和智利創立自然保育區。他把重心放在取得大面積生態保育策略要地（通常儲存大片水資源），並試圖復育尚未開發及未設限的大自然上。最後他在法律保證整個程序不會被推翻下，捐地給國家公園管理局。他整個概念背後是國家的珍寶只有在非私有化時才能得到最妥善的護育。
Today, Tompkins owns lands principally in three areas: southern Chile (Puma椌n Park, Valle Chacabuco), southern Argentina (the Santa Cruz River Basin), and north eastern Argentina (Esteros del Iber罝 in the Corrientes Province). His total land holdings are estimated to be around 8,000 square kilometers, making him one of the top private land owners in the world. His land is primarily dedicated to conservation, consisting of mountain ridges, swamps, rainforests, pastures, rivers, and wide steppes.
今天，湯普金斯擁有的土地主要在三大地區：智利南部（普馬林公園及查卡布科河谷）、阿根廷南部（聖塔克魯茲河谷盆地）及阿根廷東北部（科連特斯省的伊貝拉沼澤地），他總共持有的土地面積約8000平方公里，使他成為世上數一數二擁有私有土地最多的地主。他的土地主要致力於環境保育，包括崇山峻嶺、沼澤地、雨林、牧場、河川和寬闊的大草原。
Tompkins has had political conflicts with rural workers in the lands he has bought. Some have accused him of mistreating workers who occupy and refuse to leave their lands, especially in the Esteros del Iber罝 area. For his part, the deep ecologist is in conflict with large businesses, especially the Chilean salmon industry and foresting businesses, which he sees as threats to biological diversity and healthy ecosystems. Tompkins is one of the prime examples of conversion away from consumption towards conservation.
但湯普金斯已和他收購土地上的農工爆發政治衝突。有些人指控他虐待那些霸佔土地又拒絕離開的農工，尤其在伊貝拉沼澤地帶。這位深層保育家不惜和大企業起衝突，尤其是智利鮭魚和森林業者，他認為這些企業威脅物種多樣化和健全的生態保育體系。湯普金斯是由消費主義轉向環境保育工作的最佳典範之一。
His latest campaign is in Argentina, where he is duelling against farmers whom he accuses of polluting the nation's vast northern sweet-water marshes in Corrientes province near the Paraguayan and Brazilian borders.
他最近則是在阿根廷發起一項行動，對那些被他指控在阿根廷和巴拉圭及巴西接壤邊境的科連特斯省汙染阿國北部大片淡水沼澤地的農民展開攻防。
He bought 1,390 square kilometers of land around these marshes in 1998 and is trying to persuade authorities to turn the rich tropical ecosystem into a vast national park of some 13,000 square kilometers. Tompkins is widely regarded with suspicion and resentment as a misguided interloper.
他於1998年買下1390平方公里沼澤地，並試圖說服有關當局把這片豐富的熱帶保育系統變成占地1萬3000平方公里的龐大國家公園，但大多數人認為他為私利擅闖並干涉他國事務，對他心生疑慮和憎厭。
"We were told here in Corrientes, 'People say that you are here to steal water.' So I said: 'How am I gonna do it, to transport it and take it to somewhere else' They said: 'By the Internet.' And I said: 'If I can do that, I don't need the water'."
「在科連特斯省這裡有人告訴我們：『有人說你來這裡是為了偷水。』我回說：『我怎麼偷？怎麼運水，並送到其他地方？』他們說：『靠網路啊。』我就說：『如果辦得到，我就不需要水了。』」
Tompkins, the diminutive and trim 66-year-old, said he would not be dissuaded from trying to save the environment, a passion he discovered on reading works by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. He seeks to persuade opponents through defensive steps, deploying reason and philanthropic gestures. Along with his wife Kristine（see picture, AFP）, he has already donated hundreds of thousands of protected hectares in southern Chile and Argentina.
今年66歲、個子矮小瘦削的湯普金斯表示，他不會因被勸阻而不去拯救環境，他是在讀挪威哲學家奈斯的作品時發掘自己對環保的熱情。他試圖透過理性和行善的姿態，採取守勢說服對手。他和妻子克莉絲汀（見圖，法新社）已捐贈數十萬公頃位於智利和阿根廷南部的土地。
But he also has his tactics of offense: using his big fortune, amassed from the sale of his clothing brands, to buy up cattle farms where he reintroduces marsh deer, anteaters and species that had disappeared; and fires salvos of expensive lawsuits at rice farmers he says use chemicals that upset the local ecology. Project Iberia, an outfit he funds to keep up his fight, has won seven lawsuits so far. "Argentine laws protecting the water are very solid," explained Sofia Heinonen, the 41-year-old head of the project.
但他偶爾也採取攻勢：利用出售服飾品牌所得的龐大資產，購買養牛的牧場，再引進沼澤鹿、食蟻獸及已經消失的物種，並向他指稱使用化肥破壞當地生態系統的稻農發起連串昂貴的訴訟。一個他出資為他奮戰的組織「伊比利亞計畫」，迄今已打贏7場官司。該計畫41歲負責人索菲亞．海諾南解釋說：「阿根廷保護水資源的法律很健全。」
But the approach has earned Tompkins enemies. "We don't believe in this myth of the billionaire philanthropist. Tompkins is face of the power of money -- part of the rich and powerful who want to take the natural resources of Latin America," said Mabel Moulin, a spokeswoman for the Iber罝 Heritage Foundation for the Correntinos.
但這種方式也為湯普金斯樹敵。「我們不信所謂億萬富豪行善這套迷思，湯普金斯代表金權的力量，代表有錢有勢的人想奪走拉丁美洲的自然資源。」科連特斯省伊貝拉傳統基金會女發言人梅寶‧莫林說。
The green flag of her group flies at the entrance of several farms in the marshlands, a symbol of defiance. Moulin charges that Tompkins is forcing poor rural workers off the land he buys with little concern for the human hardship he is causing. "Before anteaters or deer, we should be defending the people," she said.
她那個基金會的綠色旗幟在沼澤區幾個農場入口處飄揚，是反抗挑釁的象徵。莫林指控湯普金斯迫使貧農離開他們的土地，完全無視於他所引起的人類困苦。她說：「比食蟻獸或沼澤鹿優先的，應該是捍衛人民的生活。」
Nevertheless, Tompkins is convinced of his mission. "You must keep your position, do your thing, do it well, have results to show. And over time, you always win. Humans are part of a larger system, they are not living in a glass box above nature. They should take into consideration as we develop our economies and our cultures that we have to share our planet with other creatures," he added.
但湯普金斯對自己的使命有信心。「你得穩住陣腳，為所當為，做得好，拿出成績，時間久了，總會佔上風。人類是更大系統的一環，他們並非活在玻璃箱裡，凌駕於大自然之上，當我們發展經濟和文化時，他們也應該想到，我們得和其他生物分享我們的地球。」