In 1978, Richard Branson, then 28, paid $180,000 for a small, uninhabited island in the British Virgin Islands. Necker Island had no fresh water source, no buildings and barely any vegetation beyond scrub and cactus. Nearly fifty years after the purchase, and roughly four decades since the resort itself was completed, that same 74-acre island supports a working conservation programme that shelters well over 140 species, several of which now breed there naturally, including lemurs from Madagascar and giant tortoises from the Seychelles.
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