A non-profit to manage Brandon Park.
Raif Karerat
When you’re a bona fide billionaire like Jack Ma, the Chinese entrepreneur who co-founded e-commerce titan Alibaba, paying $23 million for a sprawling estate in New York’s Adirondacks might just seem like a drop in the bucket.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the recently purchased property — known as Brandon Park — boasts more than nine miles of the St. Regis River, a 1940s log camp, a trout fishery, woodlands replete with a plethora of lakes and streams, and a private-label maple-syrup operation.
A non-profit entity will be formed to manage Brandon Park, and it will mark Ma’s first purchase of conservation land outside China, Ma’s spokesman Jim Wilkinson told the Journal. Ma has been leading conservation efforts in China as chairman of the China board of the Nature Conservancy, a global conservation organization.
He played a pivotal role in establishing the Laohegou Nature Reserve in Sichuan, the first nature reserve in China managed by a non-governmental organization, according to the Nature Conservancy.
The Alibaba Group, where Ma still serves as chairman, has directed 0.3 percent of its annual operating revenue to a foundation for environmental protection since 2010. The company has also launched a campaign to clean up the water in Zhejiang Province, where Ma grew up and where Alibaba is headquartered.
Wilkinson informed the Journal that Ma’s first move as Brandon Park’s new owner was to stop an existing logging operation on the property. While he bought the estate primarily for conservation purposes, the entrepreneur also plans to use it as an occasional personal retreat.
“Protecting the environment in China will always be Jack’s first and foremost priority and he will continue his strong efforts here,” Wilkinson told CNN. “This international land purchase reflects Jack’s belief that we all inhabit the same planet and we all breathe the same air, so we are dependent on each other for our collective future.”