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‘Buy land. They ain’t making it anymore’
Simon Barnes unpicks the aphorism attributed to both Mark Twain and Will Rogers.
6 September 2019
This article first appeared in our Earth Day 2026 issue of My Green Pod Magazine. Click here to subscribe to our digital edition and get each issue delivered straight to your inbox
Main image: wetlands in Brazil’s Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu (REGUA). Credit WLT / Dan Bradbury
In July 2025 I had the chance to visit Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu, or REGUA, a place I had heard a lot about during my time at World Land Trust (WLT) but had never experienced in person.
Spread across more than 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, REGUA is where restoration meets resilience; water, wildlife and people are held together by a vision and a determination not to lose what remains.
REGUA is working with purpose: protecting the Guapiaçu watershed, defending one of the world’s most threatened ecosystems and proving what patient, thoughtful conservation can achieve. But at the heart of my visit is the Hermes Plot, a single area of forest whose protection is essential in this recovering landscape.
REGUA’s biodiversity is dazzling; in a single week I recorded more than 160 bird species. We encountered a number of lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris), who are part of a careful reintroduction programme, and capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) sunning themselves alongside broad-snouted caiman (Caiman latirostris), who turn the water into a dark mirror.
In the forest we also saw a brown-throated three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) tucked into its quiet geometry of sleep. At night, the forest came to life again with a new collection of noises, calls, whispers and threads, each sound a line that tells you the system is working.
Three species of owl called on one night from the layered darkness: the tropical screech owl (Megascops choliba), the tawny-browed owl (Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana), and the ferruginous pygmy owl (Glaucidium brasilianum).
One moment lingers particularly clearly for me. In a shaded clearing, a male white-bearded manakin (Manacus manacus) gave a performance of flicks, snaps and whirrs; it was an avian dance full of bravado and precision, the likes of which I have only ever seen in documentaries. This small bird’s dance was aimed at females in the area, but its hard work very much impressed me, too.
I visited the Hermes Plot, which is the focus of our Spring Appeal. It connects Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and is where the stakes of this work come sharply into view.
The property covers 180 hectares (444 acres), and it is owned by one family who has cared for it for half a century. The land straddles a narrow valley and is wrapped on both sides by other plots owned by REGUA.
A small stream, which begins higher up on land already owned by REGUA, runs through the Hermes Plot into the basin of the Guapiaçu watershed. To stand there and hear that water is to understand the heart of this project; protect the valley and you protect the flow. Safeguard the forest and you safeguard the source.
The journey to the plot tells the story of a landscape on a knife’s edge. The track up into the property is at first a hard-packed gravel access road; utilities, including electricity, extend only partway. As you climb you pass a couple of large, well-developed weekend homes, evidence of the wealth just a drive away in Rio de Janeiro.
Carry on and the houses become more traditional. The road begins to break down. Tyres clatter over large rocks and stones. Then you must leave your vehicle behind and follow a trail on foot, but it’s clear it wouldn’t take much to expand access by improving the road and pulling utilities deeper into the valley.
After passing the last property you are greeted by the person who lives there – and their dogs – in a small act of warmth that says something about community and care.
Finally, the trail opens and you step into quiet. The stream speaks low in the greenery. The slopes rise steeply above you, a broken green amphitheatre. Birds call from every direction. The immediate feeling is that this is a special place – the next is that it is vulnerable.
All of this is why the Hermes Plot matters so much. It is a keystone on the eastern side of the watershed, connecting existing protected areas on both sides. This makes it far more practical for rangers to patrol and for scientists to monitor the abundance of wildlife already using the corridor.
It also helps alleviate the greatest risk to the valley’s future, which is the development pressure creeping uphill from below.
Extending utilities and upgrading roads into unprotected areas create an easy path for second homes and piecemeal construction that would snap the spine of this area.
I was fortunate to meet members of the family that has owned the Hermes Plot for 50 years. We spoke about why REGUA wants to purchase it. We spoke about water, about wildlife, about the responsibility of holding a place that is part of something larger than itself. It was clear they wanted to do right by their family and by the area. The idea that the forest would stand, in their name, forever, seemed to touch something profound: the wish to pass on a legacy.
There is a way to save this valley. REGUA has shown again and again how targeted land purchase, followed by strong management and restoration where needed, locks in a future that developers cannot take away.
The Hermes Plot is ready. The owners are willing to sell. The conservation benefits are as clear as the water running through its centre. Leave it unprotected and it will almost certainly be developed and lost; protect it and it becomes a permanent piece of living infrastructure for the watershed and a safe passage for wildlife that needs connected forest to survive.
Nicholas Locke, REGUA’s CEO, spoke with deep gratitude about our long partnership. I could see exactly what he meant. The wetlands alive with birdsong. The corridors reconnected. The tapirs stepping softly in a place that had once forgotten how to hold such weight. This is what long-term collaboration does. It builds. It heals. It lasts.
The Hermes Plot is our next essential step. With a gift to our Spring Appeal, we can help REGUA purchase and protect this 180-hectare plot, secure the waters that run through it, keep the corridor intact for rangers and wildlife and stop development at the point where it would cause the most damage. In time, the stream will keep running, the forest will keep growing and the birds will keep calling. And you will have helped make that possible.
A generous private donor has provided funds that will match donations to our Connecting Brazil’s Atlantic Forest appeal up to £197,260. This means a gift from you to the appeal could be doubled in value; a £25 donation from you, for example, could be matched to make a £50 contribution overall. By donating, your support will go twice as far towards our fundraising target.
Support the Connecting Brazil’s Atlantic Forest appeal by visiting worldlandtrust.org
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