Man bought an abandoned island for $11,000 to plant 16,000 trees and bring endangered species back, refusing to sell despite being offered $50M

A British man spent $11,000 on an abandoned island, where he planted 16,000 trees and helped bring back endangered species.

Moyenne Island, located in the Indian Ocean, has been a flora and fauna reserve since the 1970s.

Brendon Grimshaw, a newspaper editor, purchased the island and set about bringing the island back to its original form.

And despite offers of $50 million, he refused to sell the island.

Around the world, there are ton of islands with interesting backstories

There’s no exact count of how many islands exist in the world, but it’s easily in the millions.

Many are uninhabited, while others play host to human settlement and rich wildlife.

And then are those with truly remarkable backstories.

There’s America’s ‘weirdest island’, which most of the population has likely never heard of.

But then there’s a special category of islands – the ones which are purchased.

It almost seems like the act of an ultra-rich celebrity, like a certain Johnny Depp, whose island is pictured above.

But even ‘regular’ guys are getting in on the act too.

You might recall the story of the four friends who spent $65,000 to buy a deserted Florida island.

This isn’t some new fad either.

The British newspaper editor who bought an abandoned island in the Indian Ocean

In 1962, Brendon Grimshaw purchased Moyenne Island for £8,000 [$11,000].

In today’s money, that’s about £221,557 [$294,480].

As a newspaper editor from the UK, it’s hardly like Grimshaw was awash in riches.

But he had enough cash to secure the 24 acres of overgrown island.

It didn’t have fresh water, buildings, electricity, or any infrastructure.

A total blank slate for him to get to work on.

And get to work on it, he surely did.

With the help of a local Seychelles man, Rene Lafortune, he got busy restoring nature on the island.

After clearing out invasive species, they planted more than 16,000 trees, flowers, and plants that were native to the island.

But he didn’t stop there.

He bought back species that were on the verge of extinction, like the Aldabra tortoises.

On the flourishing island he had helped revive, Grimshaw lived in a modest house, relying on nearby islands for food and other amenities.

Why did he turn down offers to buy it?

Over the years, the Seychelles became a tourist hotspot.

This led to surrounding islands being decked out with glitzy hotels, something that Grimshaw was personally disgusted by.

These developments represented greed to him, something that ran contrary to what he was trying to achieve on his island.

It’s no wonder then that he’d reportedly turned down hefty offers of purchase, with one offer of $50 million to turn his island into a luxury resort being rebuffed.

For him, the island was about conservation.

Visitors were allowed to come to visit, but numbers were kept under wraps for the sake of the animals and fauna.

In 2009, Moyenne Island was declared a national park by the Seychelles government.

Unfortunately, Lafortune and Grimshaw would both pass away in the following years, leading to their burial on the island.

These days, the island remains largely undeveloped, aside from a small restaurant and a museum dedicated to Grimshaw.

Fortunately, the 50 Aldabra tortoises still remain on what used to be an abandoned island.