Tech entrepreneur donates $14.5M to protect threatened B.C. ecosystems

A tech entrepreneur has given the B.C. Parks Foundation $14.5 millionto protect local ecosystems.

The donation from Age of Union Alliance, led byLightspeed Commerce founder Dax Dasilva,is thelargest single donation in the history of the foundation, whichaims to enhance and expand the province'sparks system.

Part of the money will go toward buying land in Vancouver Island'sFrench Creek Estuary, acritical eagle habitat.

"It's a migratory stopping pointas the eagles migrate and, of course, there areresidenteagles, and it's surrounded by subdivisions," Dasilva said.

"If we didn't protect it, I think we would be really endangering the future generations of eagles."

Money will also go tothe Pitt River Watershed in Metro Vancouver and other projects.

Dasilva, 45, was born and raised in B.C. and made his fortune with Lightspeed, a payment processing company. He says he wants to use some of that wealth to buy land in B.C and keep it from being developed.

"There's a specialness to what we have here that can't be replicated and I think that we never want to ever be at the point where we feel like, ohwow, we let it slip through our fingers and we let it be lost," he said.

Dasilva also says he hopes his gift will inspire other successful business leaders to make donations.

Last year, a donation from the family foundation of Lululemon Athletica founder Chip Wilson and his wife, Shannon,allowed the foundation to purchase threatened Coastal Douglas fir ecosystems in the Strait of Georgia.

Christie Stephenson, executive director of the Peter P. Dhillon Centre for Business Ethics at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, said large donations can inspire others to share their wealth.

"I think it's really positive when you do see someone stepping forward and makinga really meaningful contribution and then others takenote and feelexcited about contributing themselves or seeing that maybe they have an obligation to contribute as well."

B.C. Parks CEO Andy Day says the foundation has receiveddonations both big and small from British Columbians looking to preserve the region's biodiversity.

"We have this kind of global responsibility to protect and uphold our natural legacy," he said.