At the crumbling colonial farm buildings in Porto Real, agricultural worker Kimilson Lima, 43, has signed the agreement and he\u2019s happy. \u201cWith this money we can have a proper floor in the house,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd an inside toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lima is part of a ground-breaking experiment on the West African island of Pr\u00edncipe, where villagers who agree to follow an environmental protection code will reap a quarterly dividend. To date nearly 3,000 have joined the Faya Foundation\u2019s project, more than 60% of the adult population. The first payment of up to \u20ac816 (\u00a3708) has just been delivered, a large amount of money on the island. \u201cThis will be truly transformative, both for nature and for the people,\u201d said the president of the self-governing region, Felipe Nascimento.<\/p>\n
The special nature of Pr\u00edncipe\u2019s flora and fauna has been known since the 20-mile-long island was stumbled upon by Portuguese navigators in 1471. Uninhabited and separated from the African mainland by over 160 miles of ocean, both Pr\u00edncipe and its larger southern neighbour, S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9, had evolved unique rainforests where giant land snails and crabs were among the top predators. Even now, new species are still being discovered, leading to the nickname \u201cAfrican Galapagos\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Portuguese started a cacao plantation economy, but after independence in 1975, that business fell apart. On Pr\u00edncipe, the descendants of slaves and labourers from Angola and Cabo Verde became tight-knit communities of subsistence farmers, camping out in the increasingly decrepit colonial-era buildings. For the occasional visitor, it was picturesque, but problems were mounting for residents who were being pushed deeper into unexplored parts of the island, cutting trees and foraging.<\/p>\n
Pri\u0301ncipe kingfisher, which are endemic to the island. Photograph: Kevin Rushby<\/p>\n
Then, 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. \u201cThe normal path to development for Pr\u00edncipe would be to cut down forest and grow \u2018fair trade\u2019 peppercorns,\u201d Shuttleworth said. \u201cBut we want to reward them as stewards of their precious environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
double quotation markThis will be truly transformative, both for nature and for the peopleFelipe Nascimento, pressident of Principe<\/p>\n
That dream has now reached fruition, much to the surprise of local sceptics. \u201cThey\u2019ve been let down in the past,\u201d says Faya project CEO, Jorge Alcobia. \u201cThey didn\u2019t expect us to keep our promises.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is still, however, a learning process about how to help the environment. \u201cWe have to explain that it\u2019s not free money,\u201d said Alcobia, \u201cDividends are reduced, for example, if there\u2019s unauthorised tree-felling.\u201d Faya is funding school improvements, organising the moribund cacao business, and giving financial advice. \u201cA lot of people here have no bank account and little experience of handling money.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, however, all the money comes from Shuttleworth\u2019s fortune, a past and future commitment that totals about \u00a387m. Among the developments is a new village, home to Clara Gomes and her daughter. \u201cMy money is going on a new kitchen and training in carpentry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Clara Gomes at her house in a new village built by the Faya Foundation. Photograph: Kevin Rushby<\/p>\n
Her neighbour, Edmundo, is selling cacao to the project. \u201cI had no one to buy it before,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping they might take vanilla next.\u201d He has signed up for the dividend, but others remain sceptical. \u201cIt\u2019s a monopoly,\u201d shouted a bystander, \u201cIs that good? And what if everyone buys motorbikes and chainsaws?\u201d<\/p>\n
For one man, years spent foraging in the forest have now blossomed into a career as wildlife guide. Yodiney dos Santos now leads scientific expeditions into the forest where several new species have been discovered, including a previously unknown owl. He knows only too well how fragile this environment is. \u201cMy ancestors came here from Angola,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd, for food, they brought the edible West African snail, which then escaped. Now those snails are pushing out the endemic Pr\u00edncipe snails.\u201d<\/p>\n
This unique social experiment will be watched closely. \u201cIf it\u2019s successful,\u201d said Shuttleworth, \u201cI hope other irreplaceable ecosystems might benefit from the idea at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was amended on 12 March 2026. An earlier version mistakenly implied that Yodiney dos Santos had discovered new species on expeditions; in fact, he leads expeditions to see the new species. Also it said that the first payment would be \u20ac816; that should have said up to \u20ac816.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the crumbling colonial farm buildings in Porto Real, agricultural worker Kimilson Lima, 43, has signed the agreement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-473829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}