A Piece of Patagonia Can Be Yours — But There’s a Catch

(Bloomberg) -- A Chilean entrepreneur is looking to sell swathes of forested land in Patagonia to US citizens on the understanding they won’t do anything with it.

Felipe Escalona is opening an office in New York as part of a project to protect land flanked by fjords, lakes and glaciers. Under The Real Eco State banner, Escalona is offering blocks of 5-20 hectares (12-49 acres), with heavy restrictions on how much owners can develop.

Inspired by the late US businessman-turned-conservationist Douglas Tompkins, Escalona wants to protect the area from lax regulations that allow the development of half-hectare subdivisions. Tompkins owned thousands of acres of land in southern Chile, much of which has been turned into national parks.

But Escalona also wants to make a buck. Since 2017, the value of his Patagonia blocks has grown an average of 20% a year and now sell for anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 an hectare. He’s sold about 6,000 hectares in total, including 2,000 last year, and plans to reach 100,000 by 2025. Law firm Baker McKenzie oversees transactions.

Now Escalona is also looking to apply the same model in areas of the Amazon, Africa and the US to create a global platform. Carbon sequestration is also on the cards. He wants to turn conservation into a business. But his target is middle-income earners rather than wealthy philanthropists. 

“I’m interested mainly in transactions of small sizes,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest in bigger sizes or packages. But this has to do with democratizing.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.