Pumas, Condors, and Protecting 9 Million Acres: Rewilding at Scale with Carolina Morgado

Back in the 1990s, Carolina Morgado was working for a river kayaking company in Chile when her first customer happened to be Doug Tompkins, the co-founder of Esprit and The North Face. At the time, Tompkins was quietly acquiring huge tracts of land across South America with a bold vision to create national parks and protect wild ecosystems at scale.

That encounter changed the trajectory of Carolina’s life. She went on to work alongside Doug and Kris Tompkins for over two decades at Tompkins Conservation. After Doug’s tragic death in 2015, Kris restructured the organization to ensure its long-term impact, leading to the creation of Rewilding Chile, where Carolina now serves as Executive Director.

In this episode of Nature Junkie Radio, Carolina shares what it takes to lead one of the most ambitious rewilding and conservation efforts on the planet. She breaks down what rewilding really means, how it differs from passive conservation, and about overcoming the most insane obstacles to making this work happen for the greater good.

We explore the three core pillars of Rewilding Chile’s work: National parks as a large-scale, long-term conservation strategy, wildlife rehab and reintroduction to rebuild complete ecosystems, and community engagement as the first line of both love and protection for wild places.

Carolina brings these ideas to life with powerful stories from Patagonia, from pumas roaming freely again (sometimes in unexpected places), to condors being reintroduced, to former sheep ranches transforming back into thriving ecosystems.

This conversation touches on biodiversity, climate resilience, wildlife conservation, and the future of national parks. Carolina paints a vivid picture of what’s possible when vision, scale, and long-term commitment come together.

If you find anything in this episode helpful or inspiring, please share it with a friend so we can bend the algorithms toward nature. Thanks!

Episode Links

Rewilding Chile website

@Rewildingchile Instagram

Route of Parks of Patagonia

Tompkins Conservation

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Production Credits

Hosted by Jeff Johnson

Podcast cover art by Ahab Nimry

Outro music by Tyler Johnson

Editing by Aashish M.