Bank Warms Chile

Bank Protects Land in Tierra del Fuego

Environmentalists in Chile have reason to be muy feliz of late. First, the government agreed to turn a vast tract of land owned by U.S. multimillionaire Doug Tompkins into a public nature reserve. Now, investment bank Goldman Sachs has announced that it will create another such reserve in Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America. Goldman Sachs obtained the land -- 680,000 acres of it -- by purchasing defaulted bonds from U.S. forestry company Trillium Corporation, which had planned to log the area for wood chips and other products, much to the dismay of environmentalists. "We weighed our options and decided that protecting this ecological jewel was the socially responsible thing to do," said company Media Relations Director Peter Rose. The land is forested with rare lenga wood, found only in southern Chile and Argentina. Goldman Sachs plans to set up a Chilean foundation and select an environmental group to manage the reserve by the end of next year.