BuyWorld

BuyWorld, save the earth by buying it

The set-up
BuyWorld was founded at the end of 2019, after Gerard van Dorth realized that a number of things need to change drastically if we want to keep the earth livable. With the foundation BuyWorld, he wants to protect nature by purchasing pieces of land through collective ownership, in order to then leave them alone. This way, nature is given the time and space to recover and flourish.
The reasons why Gerard chose for a collective ownership structure are simple. The first reason is very practical: collective purchasing means sharing costs and many participants, quite simply put, means a lot of capital. The second important reason is the organizational structure. BuyWorld has organized it in such a way that everyone who participates in the purchase of a piece of land gets a vote. It does not matter whether you buy 1 square meter or 1000 square meters, everyone has one vote regardless of his/her/their contribution. The more votes, the better. Decisions are not taken according to the principle of the majority of votes, but by unanimity/consensus. You would think that it is not at all useful to make decisions unanimously in a large collective, because if it is the case that not everyone agrees with the proposition, nothing happens. That's right, but that is exactly Gerard's intention, everyone has a veto right. BuyWorld wants to protect nature and, according to Gerard, the best way to do this is to do nothing at all. For example: what do we want to happen to the Amazon? Nothing, don't touch it!
The BuyWorld Foundation owns at least 1 square meter of each piece of purchased land and therefore always has a say in decisions. Since BuyWorld focuses on the objectives: nature conservation, species conservation, nature development and species development, they can always use their vote to ensure that there is no unanimity and that the land is left alone.

Organizational structure
In answer to my question of why they chose the form of a foundation instead of an association, Gerard’s response is clear. He deliberately chose for an idealistic foundation in order to remove the power of others. Not because he does not trust others, but to be able to guarantee that they keep their hands off the purchased land. The organization consists of a few directors and a number of other volunteers who help with promotions, marketing and excursions. There are no members as is the case in an association. The construction is arranged in such a way that the BuyWorld foundation purchases the entire piece of land and takes legal ownership. Everyone who has purchased a piece of land through BuyWorld is the economic owner of that land. This means that they have the right to vote, but also that they can sell their purchased piece again. Selling is only possible within the foundation, and not on the open market, separate from BuyWorld. The advantage of this construction is that BuyWorld only has to go to the notary once to put the purchase of the land on paper. It is much cheaper this way than making everyone who participates legal owner as well.
In addition to the purchasing costs, there are also some annual costs for the participants, with which the maintenance, valuation of immovable property and regional water authorities are being paid. The annual costs are minimal and are around € 0.05 per square meter, for which people sign up when purchasing.

Why allow sales?
I was of course curious why the sale of purchased land is made possible within the BuyWorld foundation, since it could lead to speculation. Land always becomes more expensive, including meadows and/or forest land. Gerard agrees with me that it would have been even better if people could not resell at all, but still they chose for the option of resale for several reasons. Firstly, Gerard thinks it is smarter to stay close to human DNA. That sounds a bit silly, but according to Gerard, humans are by nature a bit rapacious. He himself as well. According to him, there are only a few people who are not, but as a matter of fact, he doesn't know any. People are simply not like bees or ants who work in service of the collective, they often think of themselves first.
In any case, Gerard is not afraid that people will join BuyWorld with the intention of speculating with the purchased plots of land. Most people participate because they think it is a good idea and want to help keeping the earth livable, for themselves but also for future generations. Some people buy land through BuyWorld and divide it amongst their grandchildren. There are also companies that participate, they give plots of land or BuyWorld gift vouchers to employees or business partners instead of the customary Christmas gift with wine, cheese and chocolate. There are even companies that have a kickback action at BuyWorld, which means that they buy land from BuyWorld with a share of their profit.
The number of people who have resold their piece of land after purchasing it and made a profit from it can be counted on two hands. In itself this is not a big deal. BuyWorld can continue to guarantee its objectives because the plots of land can only be sold within the foundation. On the other hand, the possibility of sale also takes into account transfer in the event of death. People die and it is therefore important that purchased certificates can be passed on to heirs.

Collective purchasing means collective protection
Buying as a large collective – in this case, with as many people as possible - has according to Gerard the great advantage that you can protect it together. A single owner or a small group of owners is easier to convince than a large group of people, which is why BuyWorld targets large groups. The chance of a unanimous decision becomes smaller in large groups, which makes this system ideal for achieving BuyWorld's objectives.
Gerard firmly believes in the principle of critical masses: if enough people participate or are against it, you can get it done. Even politics, which Gerard does not regard highly, for political parties mainly act based on retaining votes and power, cannot compete with a large crowd. They too eventually bend when the masses demand something, otherwise they lose votes and are out. That's how politics work. BuyWorld is fundamentally built on the idea of critical masses. The larger the group, the better you can protect yourself.

Connection with the purchased
Gerard believes that it is important that people who buy a piece of land through BuyWorld have the opportunity to visit and help with the purchased land. Connection is important and that is why they organize excursions once every year to the areas they have purchased. Not too often, because then you disturb nature and that is not the intention. The great thing about an excursion is that people themselves can see what happens when you let nature take its course. For example, you can see how the monoculture of a production forest changes quite quickly if you do nothing. People then see the impact of their involvement and that works well.

Nature keeps the air clean, cleans the water and makes the soil fertile, while in our financial system it is the most undervalued.

New areas
If it were up to Gerard, they would buy a new piece of land every day, but it is not that easy. A piece of land costs a lot of money and bizarrely enough, nature is the cheapest. Nature keeps the air clean, cleans the water and makes the soil fertile, while in our financial system it is the most undervalued. Since an unlimited amount of money is not available, the purchase price is of great importance and BuyWorld has started with purchasing 2 relatively cheap production forests. One forest with only Scots pine and another forest with only birch. Remarkable to notice is that for a while after the purchase of the pine forest, the Scots pine was doing poorly. Because it was too hot and not humid enough, the pines could not make resin, several trees were eaten by beetles and eventually fell over. Not a good sign, you might say, but all of a sudden there was space, there was light and this turned out to be good for diversity. Without having to do anything, room was created for other species and the monoculture of the production forest slowly changed into an ecosystem with diversity.
Meadows are more expensive than forest. At the time of this conversation, Gerard estimates the price for a square meter of meadow at 6 euros. Not a problem in itself, but it means that as soon as the land is purchased by BuyWorld and converted into nature, its value decreases on paper. The consequence is that everyone who buys a piece of land loses money accounting-wise. Assuming that people do not participate to become richer, I do not think that this fall in value should be a problem. However, according to Gerard, this drop in value prevents some from getting involved right away.
Other pieces of land, such as building plots or the area of Lelystad Airport, which Gerard also looked at (with a wink), are of course much more expensive than meadows or forests. Ideally, Gerard would like to also convert those square meters into nature in the future, but because of its high costs, this is a project for later. Ultimately, everything is for sale, says Gerard, as long as you pay enough. This is how the capitalist world operates and that is also exactly the reason why things go wrong. People often believe that they can do whatever they want once they have purchased something and own it.

Purchasing a new piece of land means that someone has to advance the costs. BuyWorld is not large enough to immediately mobilize dozens or hundreds of people who all participate and immediately invest money when a piece of land is for sale. To buy a piece of land you usually need at least 2 or 3 hundred thousand euros, so that's serious money. That amount is advanced by someone and then BuyWorld has about five years the option to take over. During that time, enough people who want to participate need to be found.
In addition to the areas in Hietkamp and Marisberg, Buyworld is currently occupied with the purchase of an area in Smakt in the municipality of Venray. There are also plans to purchase a meadow in Overijsel. They are postage stamps, but many stamps make a large whole, according to Gerard. BuyWorld ideally strives towards connecting areas to each other, which requires conversations with farmers about the possible takeovers of plots. For the time being that is quite difficult since not many farmers are in favor of BuyWorld yet.
For now, the focal point is still the Netherlands, but there are connections across the border as well. The possibility of becoming active over there in the future is certainly also being considered. It is not without reason that the foundation is called BuyWorld and not BuyNetherlands.

Additional income
To reach and excite more people, more marketing is actually needed. There is not much budget for promotion because there is little income. BuyWorld does not do merchandise. No caps, buttons, shirts and other stuff that is later thrown out. There are no subsidies, only donations.
Of course, BuyWorld could have made everyone who owns a piece of land at BuyWorld pay an amount of 10 euros per year instead of just the aforementioned costs for maintenance and property valuation. Many organizations do this and in doing so they create budgets to work with. BuyWorld is of course happy with donations, but does not want to oblige land buyers to do more than the absolutely necessary.
BuyWorld could have been a lot bigger and more financially powerful if it had responded to some of the requests that were made in the past. There were people who asked whether it was possible to create natural burial grounds or forest gardens and install solar panels and/or windmills in BuyWorld areas. These are all ideas from people who wanted to invest money with the condition that they could also get some profit from it. According to Gerard, it is precisely this gain that is the loss, which is why he absolutely does not want to cooperate with these types of requests. The only option available is to place a billboard on the edge of the area. Of course in consultation with BuyWorld and absolutely not just for everyone who asks, but it is a possibility.

Fences
There are no fences around the areas of BuyWorld and there never will be. Fences confine nature, they prevent animals from moving freely. There are signs saying 'no entry', 'beware of falling branches’ or 'falling trees'.
Visitors are not welcome in the BuyWorld forests, but there are administrators. Gerard is also an administrator himself, but he enters the forest as little as possible. He usually goes for a walk on the roads alongside the edges of the forest to check whether everything is safe and whether there are no dangerously hanging branches or whether any trees have fallen. That is BuyWorld's legal obligation. In the area itself there are no legal obligations, as long as there is a warning that people must stay out of the forest.
No trees are planted in BuyWorld's forests. Letting nature run its course is much better, according to Gerard, better for nature and the climate. The restoration and preservation of nature are the best, cheapest and least complex ways to store CO2. According to Gerard, we don't need Elon Musks to take us to Mars, but rather people who get active over here. Keeping the earth livable is easy-peasy in comparison to making Mars livable. He hopes that many more people will join BuyWorld to create and protect as much nature as possible; to keep the earth livable for plants, animals and humans.