Ikea bought 11,000 acres of forest in Georgia to protect it from development

The kings of Swedish home retail, Ikea are investing in sustainable development actions around the world, and they recently bought forestland in Georgia, the US to protect it.
The land which is located in the southeastern part of the country has 10,840 acres and is near the Altamaha River Basin, the company announced on January 14.. The company’s mission is to raise awareness of the massive deforestation happening all over the world and to protect our lands as long as possible.
By preserving the environment and practicing responsible forest management, Ikea is leading the way in sustainable investments into a greener future.

The land was bought from The Conservation Fund which is a non-profit organization and hosts more than 350 plant and wildlife species, some of these are even endangered ones.
The Conservation Fund has long fought for the preservation of forests and has a Working Forest Fund which directs its fund towards acquiring forests that can be then turned into protected areas.
Ingka Groups, which owns most of the Ikeas around the world, has started buying forests in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania since 2014 through Ingka Investments and has been investing in conserving these forests for the future generations.

Before the European migration to North America, the longleaf pine forest covered more than 90 million acres from southern Virginia to Florida, and as far west as Texas. In Georgia, the tree dominated the southern half of the state.
But less than 4% of that forest is left, due to land clearing for development and agriculture, fire suppression, and the conversion of tree farms to faster growing pine trees like loblolly and slash, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

source: cnn.com