The Daily Populous Sunday January 31st, 2021 evening edition
Authored by edition.cnn.com and submitted by WithFullForce

(CNN) An investment group of Swedish retail giant Ikea has acquired forestland in southeast Georgia to protect the land and its diverse ecosystems from development.

The Ingka Group, which owns and operates most Ikea stores, purchased 10,840 acres of land near the Altamaha River Basin, the company announced on January 14.

"We truly believe responsible forest management is possible and we see that a large part of our responsibility towards the land we own -- and by extension the planet -- is to restore forests and plant more than we harvest," Ingka Investments managing director Krister Mattsson told CNN.

"In all our properties nature conservation is important. In this particular US investment in Georgia, first it is important that the land cannot be broken up into small units and it remains forever forestland."

The land, acquired from non-profit conservation organization The Conservation Fund, is home to more than 350 plant and wildlife species -- including the endangered longleaf pine and gopher tortoise -- which are now protected.

Edg4rAllanBro on January 31st, 2021 at 11:14 UTC »

I'd be skeptical of this. There was that Swedish millionaire that bought a rainforest for preservation, but he got fined for illegal logging years later.

Sumit316 on January 31st, 2021 at 08:41 UTC »

If you don't want to click -

> The land, acquired from non-profit conservation organization The Conservation Fund, is home to more than 350 plant and wildlife species -- including the endangered longleaf pine and gopher tortoise -- which are now protected.

> The investment in forests is part of Ikea's commitment to being climate positive. The company has stated its objective to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire Ikea value chain emits by 2030 while continuing to grow its worldwide business. The Ingka Group currently operates 378 of the 445 Ikea stores worldwide.

Seems good to me. I hope more companies do this.

Hugs_for_Thugs on January 31st, 2021 at 08:27 UTC »

Had to check the article to see if it was US Georgia or Europe Georgia. It's US Georgia.