No special place remains that way for long. That’s the message behind the new National Geographic documentary about the last great wilderness of Patagonia.

Protected from the messy footprint of man, who was discouraged from visiting by wind and stormy seas. Patagonia was a breeding ground for unique wildlife. Andean condors flew over the region’s 347,000 square miles. Magellanic penguins roamed its uninhabited shores. Orcas and elephant swam in its waters.

Changes in the area’s ecosystem and landscape brought Patagonia’s potential plight to the attention of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which worked with the Chilean government and partnered with Goldman Sachs to create Karukinka, a nature reserve of more than 700,000 acres on the island of Tierra del Fuego.

Karukinka, contains unique and spectacular native flora and fauna. At the epicenter, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans collide, Karukinka is a microcosm of the environmental forces at play throughout Patagonia.

In Punta Tombo on the Atlantic shelf, scientist Dee Boersma has studied the largest colony of Magellanic penguins in the world for two decades. The work of Boersma and others makes possible the astounding animal-action footage in “Eden at the End of the World.” From a female guanaco calving to male elephant seals jousting like sumo wrestlers, viewers can experience Patagonia’s full cycle of life.

The continuity of life contrasted with threats to survival make this program an important vision of what might happen to this once-pristine region if threats are allowed to continue unchecked. Boersma says: “This is one of the spectacles of nature, but there’s a lot less now than before, because we’re using the ocean so extensively,” says Boersma.

The ongoing success of places such as Karukinka provide a remarkable template for other corporate-conservation partnerships that can help save wild places like Patagonia from environmental devastation.

EDEN AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Wednesday, 9 p.m., PBS