Many organisations have found themselves subject to intense criticism and scrutiny for buying up land overseas for the purposes of conservation. The criticisms usually arise because those behind the land purchases fail to ensure that the land is managed in a sustainable fashion post-purchase. This is normally due to overlooking the need to work closely with overseas partners – local organisations and people – who are best placed to protect and sustainably manage the natural ecosystems that are purchased.

As a result, the habitats that are bought can be subject to illegal logging, uncontrolled poaching of wildlife, land grabs from farmers, oil companies and developers and other abuses. Sadly, good intentions alone are not enough and without a sustainable infrastructure at the heart of each and every conservation project, land purchases are inherently flawed.

At Ibex Earth, we did not want the ‘Our World: Our Choice’ Campaign to just be full of good intentions. Instead it was absolutely essential that the 100,000 acres that we are looking to secure are guaranteed to be protected post-purchase in both the short and long term. This meant that we needed to find an international conservation that:

In short Ibex Earth was looking for the best - and that is why we chose to work solely with the World Land Trust.