A group of people bought an island in the Caribbean and will build their own state there

Several people bought an island in the Caribbean to start their own country. The first investment tour has already been able to appreciate the benefits of “own island”, reports CNN.

Photo: Shutterstock

"Who wouldn't want to buy an island?" asks Marshall Meyer over the roar of the engine as the boat cuts through the still waters of the Caribbean. Belize City is rapidly disappearing, and a cluster of mangrove-covered islands is rising on the horizon.
“I don’t know about you,” Mayer says, “but I definitely can’t afford to buy an island on my own!”

Mayer is co-founder of an ambitious project Let's Buy an Island, which in 2018 intended to raise funds to purchase the island. By December 2019, the group's aspirations had become a reality, with over $250 raised to complete the purchase of Coffee Caye, a half-hectare uninhabited island off the coast of Belize.

Investors didn't just buy a stake in Belize property. They also invested in an unusual nation building project because Coffee Caye, reimagined as the "Principality of Iceland" with its own national flag, anthem and government, is also the world's newest "micronation" - an organization that claims independence but is not internationally recognized as such. community.

Now in early 2022, Mayer is leading the first tour on Coffee Caye as a mixed group of investors and intrigued tourists come ashore on the world's first crowdfunded island.
“The feeling of stepping foot on an island that you have invested in and own,” Mayer says after a 15-minute boat ride from Belize, “is an amazing feeling.”

Walking from one end of Coffee Caye to the other takes a few more minutes. Mayer is keen to take the group of 13 on the island's first ever walking tour.

Coffee Caye is long, thin, and vaguely resembles a coffee bean. One side of the island, where there is a small beach descending into a shallow bay, was given over to the camp for the night. The other half of Coffee Caye is covered in shrubs and surrounded by mangroves.

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Mayer and a few other investors had stopped at Coffee Caye on sightseeing tours before, but this was the first overnight tour that anyone, investor or not, could join.

Democratic Community

For Mayer, it's also the culmination of years of crowdfunding and island hunting efforts, and he was elated when he showed the group Coffee Caye.

The original idea for island crowdfunding came about almost 15 years ago when Gareth Johnson, who is co-founder and CEO of the project, bought the domain name letsbuyanisland.com. He decided that it would be interesting to buy an island and create a microstate.

Johnson, who was unable to make it to Belize for the tour, also co-founded Young Pioneer Tours, a company that specializes in taking travelers to extreme places like North Korea and Syria, as well as unrecognized states like Transnistria, Abkhazia, and Nagorny. Karabakh, which claim de facto independence from neighboring countries.

In 2018, when an island in the Philippines was put up for sale, Johnson's old idea of ​​crowdfunding an island was revived.

“When Gareth first pitched the idea to me, I thought, God, no, this is never going to happen,” said Mayer, who met Johnson on a trip organized by Young Pioneer Tours.

“But he started to explain how much an island could cost, and we realized that there are actually parts of the world where buying an island was much more feasible than I ever thought, especially if we pooled our funds.”

The founding members had set in advance that each share on the island would be worth $3250. So far, they have sold almost 100 shares, and this number continues to grow. While investors can purchase multiple shares, each person is only entitled to one vote in the democratic decision-making process.

The shortlisted islands in the Philippines, Malaysia, Ireland, Panama and Belize were compiled after extensive research, and investors voted Coffee Caye as a typical tropical island that is also fairly easy to get to and can afford to buy outright.

Coffee Caye was purchased for $180 plus tax, and the sale was completed in December 000 - just before Covid-2019 put an end to any further plans.

Escapism and experimentation

Microstates—often eccentric territories that claim to be independent nation-states—may bestow lavish titles on their supporters and create unusual constitutions and bizarre laws.
The Principality of Sealand, a World War II battle platform off the coast of England that was declared an independent nation by its new owners in 1967, is one famous example of a micronation and was a direct inspiration for the “Principality of Iceland”. Another is the Republic of Užupis, a district in Vilnius, Lithuania, which has its own constitution and also claims independence.

For Johnson, turning Coffee Caye into a micronation is a form of escapism and experimentation.
“Who hasn’t dreamed of creating their own country? - he says. — Especially in a post-Trump, Brexit and COVID-19 world. If a group of ordinary people can make it work, maybe it can be a force for good.”

Like many micronations before it, the "Principality of Iceland" began to build all the traditional trappings of a nation state. There is a national anthem, the flag of "Iceland" and a government that is elected among investors. Johnson even jokes that he has a "quiet, quiet role as head of the secret police."

Investors and visitors to Coffee Caye automatically become citizens of the "Principality of Iceland" - there will also be new "Iceland" passports - and anyone can support the microstate by purchasing "citizenship" or titles such as Lord or Lady of "Iceland" for a small amount.
However, nation-building has its own problems. Maier admits that on a previous reconnaissance trip to the island, they left behind an "Iceland" flag and an "Iceland" seal, which have since disappeared, preventing the flag-raising ceremony from taking place.

Some take the "Principality of Iceland" more seriously than others.

While Johnson confidently says, "We're as close to the nation as we can be without an army and a navy."

Mayer sees it as more of a fancy marketing tool. Mayer stresses that the micronation should be viewed ironically, and that while they can make their own rules when they are on the island (such as banning single-use plastic, as he said as an example), Coffee Caye is still completely legal and borders of Belize.

“Why shouldn’t I invest? says another investor, Stephen Rice, as a group of guests mix holiday coconuts and rum on the beach. “I can tell all my friends that I have an island!”

Investment risk

Rice is dressed in his best quick-drying travel pants and a jacket he brought from the US especially for the occasion.

Rice was the second investor in the project - after Mayer - and he was involved in it from the very beginning. He even nearly got elected head of state of the "Principality of Iceland" in the last election.

Rice says the project will never make him rich, but the cost of the stake won't ruin him either. For Rice, it is above all entertainment and the fulfillment of the dream of owning (or jointly owning) an island.

Investors such as Rice can visit the island at cost and also receive a percentage of any profit that may be made in the future or if the island is sold.

"You might think I'm trying to buy myself a timeshare," says Rice, "but I'm paying to be here on my own island."

Let's Buy an Island is still attracting investors for the next phase of development, with the cap taking effect if the number of investors reaches 150. Exactly what the next phase will entail, no one knows for sure, and as the tour group sits around a barbecue, preparing lunch and opening a beer discusses the future of Coffee Caye.

They are a group of travelers more accustomed to exploring the former Soviet Union than tropical islands, and their ideas range from erecting a statue of Lenin to creating an underwater sculpture garden of the world's dictators, which will include a sunken bust of North Korean Kim Jong-un.

Mayer's ideas for the island include restoring the surrounding coral reef as well as creating a site for glamping (a form of camping that combines the comfort of a hotel room with the outdoors). He wants the island to be a "meeting place" with a small restaurant or bar, kayaks, and snorkeling; not only for investors, but also for tourists and locals who come from Belize.

However, potential investors will have questions, including concerns about hurricanes and rising sea levels that could affect the island.

Velvet Dallesandro, who joined the tour because she was intrigued by the island crowdfunding concept, is still not tempted to invest because of these risks. “Micronation is a real innovation,” she says. “But with climate change, there will be an ongoing battle to keep it above water.” One hit from the hurricane and it could be the end.”

The power of good?

Oscar D. Romero, a Belizean real estate agent, says the group needs to "balance the environment and economic growth." Romero explains that they will need environmental and government permits for any development, with both the mangroves and the nearby barrier reef having protected status.

Romero says that if the island can be developed in a sustainable way, involving local Belizeans where possible and helping to restore the environment, then the project could be a force for good.

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The future of Coffee Caye and the Principality of Iceland lies in the hands of its investors, and it remains to be seen how the island will develop and how far the experiment with micronationalism will go.

In the short term, Coffee Caye and the Principality of Iceland have already helped create one of the most quirky travel communities in the world. There are investors from 25 different countries, with professions ranging from train conductor to CEO, but they all have the skill set and enthusiasm to go to the island.

Meyer even brought his girlfriend here to propose (she accepted), while Rice says Coffee Caye "completely messed up my travel philosophy of only going to one place once. I've been here three times already."

“People really bought into the idea,” Mayer says as the group leaves the island the next day. “It was a crazy leap of faith, but our original goal was to buy the island and we accomplished it.” But we did not look into the future, and now we need to move on to the next stage. We don't know what it will be like."

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