I bought the Amazon not to cut it

“I bought the Amazon not to cut it”

Swedish billionaire who bought 400,000 acres of Amazon rainforest and stopped logging

To preserve the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, there is a billionaire who bought an entire forest.

Johan Eliasch, Swedish businessman and environmentalist Also known as the chairman of the sports brand HEAD, around 2005, he bought a logging company that owned about 400,000 acres (about 1,620 square km) of land in the Brazilian Amazon region. And he made an unexpected decision.

“I didn’t cut this forest, I bought it to protect it.”

Eliash immediately suspended all commercial logging activities following the acquisition of the company.
To protect Amazon, they chose “preservation” instead of revenue.

Since then, he has served as an environmental advisor to the U.N. and U.K. governments and has voiced policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect forests. Eliash also proposed a carbon emission trading system to preserve rainforests, stressing that “forests should be recognized as assets of economic value” to prevent the destruction of the Amazon.

However, his move has also sparked controversy in Brazil. Some politicians claimed **”We should be wary of foreigners buying Amazon.” In response, Eliash made it clear that it was not to own the forest, but to preserve it.

“This forest is not for me. It’s for the earth.”

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🌎 1 minute Amazon destruction statistics

Three football fields lost per minute of forest in the Amazon

produce about 20 percent of the earth’s oxygen

Key Role in Mitigating Climate Change

Eliash’s decision leaves one question.

“In a world where individuals have to ‘buy’ to protect the forest, is this really normal?”

But he certainly left a message through one choice.

The future of the earth begins with one person acting.

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🔎 Source

The Guardian

a BBC interview

Announcement materials on Climate Governance Initiative and UN Climate Foundation