Paying Islanders to Protect The Ecosystem of ‘Africa's Galapagos’
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A billionaire is funding a sustainable development project on the west African island that makes the local population stewards of its future.
Often referred to as ‘the Galapagos of Africa’, last year the tropical archipelago of São Tomé and Príncipe became the first entire country to be designated a single UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Rising from the Gulf of Guinea, the Ilha de São Tomé Biosphere Reserve protects 436 square miles (1,130 sq. km) of volcanic peaks, rainforests, and agricultural lands.
Now, Mark Shuttleworth, a tech billionaire, has started making payments to residents of the African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe for keeping it pristine and beautiful. Villagers who agree to follow an environmental protection code reap a quarterly dividend. To date nearly 3,000 have joined the Faya Foundation’s project, more than 60 percent of the adult population. The first payment of up to $940 has just been delivered, a large amount of money on the island. “This will be truly transformative, both for nature and for the people,” said the president of the self-governing region, Felipe Nascimento.
At the crumbling colonial farm buildings in Porto Real, agricultural worker Kimilson Lima, 43, has signed the agreement and told The Guardian that he’s happy. “With this money we can have a proper floor in the house,” he said. “And an inside toilet.”
Portuguese navigators first stumbled upon the islands in 1471, and over 500 years later, in 2010, South African billionaire Mark Shuttleworth arrived, looking for somewhere to build a house - an idea that was soon replaced by a philanthropic urge to help. One former plantation house was converted into a hotel with locals retrained as staff, but Shuttleworth did not stop there. His quest was to fund the type of sustainable development that also protected and improved the environment. “The normal path to development for Príncipe would be to cut down forest and grow ‘fair trade’ peppercorns,” Shuttleworth said. “But we want to reward them as stewards of their precious environment.”
That dream has now reached fruition, much to the surprise of local sceptics. “They’ve been let down in the past,” says Faya project CEO, Jorge Alcobia. “They didn’t expect us to keep our promises.”
This unique social experiment will be watched closely. “If it’s successful,” said Shuttleworth, “I hope other irreplaceable ecosystems might benefit from the idea at scale.”
