The Garden of Eden: when I was in Peru in 2022 saw 1^st hand that the indigenous population the owner were selling their land out of a necessity for money to agriculture. Surprising how cheap they were selling it for. Startling less than euro 100 a hectare in order to buy a flat screen TV and “fit in with the Jones’ next door. We can give them an alternative to sell their land that doesn’t result in deforestation. They are very poor, the only thing they have is land the only buyers are Cacao farmers / agriculture.

Got to give them an opportunity to choose an alternative. They love the rainforest. Paradoxical they are selling to buy a tv but that’s the world we live in. That’s a different problem. If they are going to sell the land anyway, they should be able to sell to someone who is going to safeguard and protect it and create employment for them and being stewards of the land. 

Euro 90 / hectare. That’s what the Cacao farmers were paying the indigenous people for the land. The dream to call it The Garden of Eden. Head of the village looks after the title deeds all the legal documents. One family actually called Eden. He was open to different ideas. Initially he wanted us to rent the land. We want to protect the land for perpetuity so renting is not a good option.

We travelled two days into the jungle and there was this village and we went to the community hall. One evening he gathered all the villagers there were more than a hundred people. He announced the idea to give an alternative to the villagers to make money rather than selling to the Cacao farmers. He presented us as the people that would help fund this land. Every single village came up to us shook our hand and hugged us and said they wanted to sell the land to be protected and not touched. “no Toka”

Most plots were owned by a family and the average plot size was 60 hectares. So cost is, Euro 5400 per plot. Also need to devote some money to protect the land from being illegally encroached.

The land bought is held in trust in perpetuity with the longer term aim of getting its assigned national park status when a significant area has been purchased.