The rewilding billionaires
14 February 2025
When you have the money, you can take matters into your own hands. As the climate crisis and environmental degradation rage on, that’s exactly what some wealthy people are doing as countries continue to fail to act with urgency.
Such is the case of the Danish biotech billionaire and marine biologist Jacob Jelsing. He was provoked by overly optimistic elements of the major Danish tripartite agreement, which plans to turn vast parts of the country's agricultural land – currently around 60% of Denmark’s area – into nature. To reach the goals of planting 1 billion trees, calculations estimate that Denmark would need to plant approximately 5,700 trees an hour every day until 2045. So Jelsing is taking action.
By now, he has already bought 250 hectares of land to turn into forest and nature to ensure faster development – but wants to surpass 1,000 hectares, if he can get his hands on it.
Some of Denmark’s richest families have been doing the same. This involves the Lego family and the Bestseller billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, who’ve both bought a lot of agricultural land, parts of which will be given back to nature. The latter even invested in a number of African countries, as well as in Scotland, where his roughly 89,000 hectares make him the country’s largest private landowner, largely for rewilding and conservation purposes. On the contrary, Povlsen’s clothing company isn’t exactly green – and neither are plastic lego bricks, although they are more hardy than cheap clothes – so there’s plenty to make up for.
Beyond Denmark, the world’s largest private land donor, the Thompkins foundation, led by co-founder and billionaire Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, has taken the lead in creating 11 national parks in Chile and Argentina. Others include Ernesto Bertarelli, the Italian-born Swiss pharmaceutical billionaire who is working to establish marine protected areas, and the Swedish billionaire Johan Eliasch who bought up parts of the Amazon rainforest back in 2005 – although many locals weren’t pleased when he did so. How much money they’ve spent on nature conservation and restoration compared to the size of their fortunes is unknown.
 | Amalie Holmgaard Mersh There’s no doubt that restoration of nature and biodiversity is urgent, and with states failing to get going, at least someone with the means is taking action. On the other hand, it begs the question of what it means when more land ends up in fewer hands. Owning land is power, and it can be argued that our planet is a common resource belonging to us all. In a place like Greenland, for instance, no one can privately own land – it’s all nationally owned. Asked about whether the land will end up in the hands of a few people, Jelsing told Information "personally, I'd rather it was all of us or the state that owned the land." On the other hand, the option to acquire land privately – at least in Denmark – is also being used by large capital funds solely focused on using land to earn money. Last year, an estimated 80,000 hectares was in the hands of foreign investors, prompting worries that it’s difficult to know who truly owns some of the agricultural lands – and how they will be farmed. |
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