Beautiful People and Beautiful
Events
Johan Eliasch - Millionaire Gone Green
By Sister-initiate Raffaella D’Agostino,
London, United Kingdom (Originally in English)
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It is not every day that a multi-millionaire spends his money to save the planet, instead of investing to make more money. Businessman Mr. Johan Eliasch did just that.
Mr. Eliasch has a long list of achievements under his belt, his main one being Chairman and CEO of the company Head, better known for its Tennis rackets and ski equipment. A banker and film producer, Mr. Eliasch also serves as a Treasurer and Special Advisor to the Shadow Foreign Secretary and is deputy chairman of the Conservative Foundation, in the UK, as well as being a member of the advisory board of the International Peace Foundation, the sports advisory board of the Shimon Peres Peace Foundation, and the advisory board of The Centre for Social Justice.
In March 2006, Mr. Eliasch purchased 400,000 acres of Amazon Rainforest from a wood logging company in Brazil. The land is estimated to have cost £8m pounds sterling (US $14m). His plot is located just north of the Madeira River and 1,600 miles (about 2,590km) northwest of Rio de Janeiro. His environmental beliefs and passion for saving the planet was the main reason for his purchase, saying: “The Amazon is the lung on the world”. Mr. Eliasch will also let scientists use his land to explore and search for undiscovered species.
On a recent interview with Chanel 4, Mr. Eliasch expressed his love for trees and how it is important to preserve them. He continued by saying that - “the Amazon produces 20% of oxygen for the planet, thus it is important to preserve the rainforest”. He encourages others to do the same, stating that the more people buy the forest the less trees would be cut down; he adds that - “the investment was good value as it does something good for the planet; the situation of the trees being cut down is just getting from bad to worse, the greenhouse gases and hurricane activities have a huge connection with the cutting of the rainforest, we must preserve the rainforest to avoid global disasters and distraction”.
I believe that if all multi-millionaires
could invest in something so meaningful to help the planet, we would
definitely be on the road to recovery. It gives me enormous pleasure
to learn that people who have the means to make the world a better place
to live in, are in fact doing something about it. Thus noble thinking
and noble action is definitely the way forward. 
