Patagonia funds purchase that halts proposed titanium mine near Okefenokee Swamp

A planned titanium mine on the edge of Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp was called off in June after the company behind the project agreed to sell the proposed site for $60 million to a group of conservation organizations, officials said. The purchase, which will prevent mining on a sensitive stretch of wetland, was financed in part by funds routed from Patagonia through the Holdfast Collective.

The Holdfast Collective contributed $2 million toward the acquisition, joining other conservation donors who helped secure the tract. The move follows a distinctive strategy by Patagonia’s founder, Yvon Chouinard, who in 2022 transferred ownership of the company to trusts and nonprofit entities that direct Patagonia’s profits to environmental causes rather than to shareholders.

Holdfast, which was created when Chouinard restructured Patagonia, distributed the company’s earnings to environmental groups and land purchases in its first year of operation. According to figures released from the organization’s first-year activity, Holdfast made 690 grants and commitments totaling more than $61 million and helped protect 162,710 acres of wilderness worldwide.

Among the grants were a $5.2 million contribution to The Nature Conservancy to acquire about 8,000 acres in Alabama’s Mobile-Tensaw Delta and a rapid commitment of $3.1 million to buy parcels that helped derail the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska. The Okefenokee purchase adds to a string of interventions by Holdfast and donors associated with Patagonia to block or alter extractive projects deemed harmful to important ecosystems.

The company’s philanthropic approach stretches back decades and is rooted in Chouinard’s personal activism. In 1972, he financed a local campaign in Ventura, California, to stop a development plan that would have diverted the Ventura River and damaged a renowned surf break and historic fish spawning grounds. That early donation was followed by other conservation commitments, including a 1989 contribution of $40,000 to help Ancient Forest International protect a stand of old-growth araucaria in southern Chile. That contribution was augmented when Chouinard’s friend Doug Tompkins, founder of Esprit, matched the donation.

As Patagonia grew into a profitable outdoor-apparel business, Chouinard and allies used company resources and personal wealth to acquire land in Argentina and Chile, fund the creation of national parks, and protect sites such as Peninsula Mitre at the southern tip of Argentina. Those efforts culminated in the 2022 decision to transfer the company into a structure intended to ensure that profits would be redirected to environmental causes on an ongoing basis.

"We make all decisions based on: Is this the right thing for the home planet?" Chouinard said when describing the company’s guiding principle, reflecting the firm’s long-running alignment of business operations with conservation priorities.

Holdfast’s first-year giving included a mix of purchases, grants and legally oriented commitments aimed at blocking projects that supporters say would undermine biodiversity and fragile waterways. The organization and its backers have focused on rivers, deltas, forests and other habitats vulnerable to mining, logging and large-scale development.

The Okefenokee Swamp is among the most ecologically diverse wetlands in the United States, home to peatlands, cypress forests and a range of amphibian, bird and mammal species. Environmental groups warned that a titanium mining operation at the swamp’s edge could have triggered pollution and hydrological disruption with long-term consequences for the wetland ecosystem.

Conservationists said that acquiring the parcel removes the immediate threat of mining at that location, though broader protections for the swamp remain the subject of ongoing advocacy, regulatory review and state and federal oversight. Holdfast and other donors have increasingly used land purchase and targeted funding as tools to shield at-risk landscapes while also supporting litigation, advocacy and local stewardship efforts.

Critics of Patagonia’s model have argued that relying on a single company’s charitable commitments is not a substitute for public regulation, but supporters note that the company’s funds have enabled rapid interventions where regulatory protections were absent or insufficient. In its first year, Holdfast’s grants and acquisitions were presented by its operators as complementary to policy work, aiming both to secure parcels outright and to support campaigns that strengthen long-term protection.

The sale that stopped the Okefenokee mine is the latest high-profile example of how private philanthropy can alter conservation outcomes. With the site now owned by a coalition of nonprofits, conservation groups will manage the property with the stated goal of preserving the swamp’s ecological functions and minimizing future development pressure.

The deal also highlights how Patagonia’s unorthodox corporate structure, established to channel profits into environmental work, continues to reshape the company’s public role. In its first year after the transfer, Holdfast’s combination of grantmaking and strategic land purchases underscored the scale at which the company’s resources could be deployed to protect ecosystems that proponents and donors deem particularly vulnerable.