€200,000,000: That's how much an anonymous Frenchman won in the Euromillions jackpot lottery last week, and almost the sum total of how much he gave towards the preservation of tropical rainforest in West Africa, and forests in his native country.

The lucky winner established the Anyama Endowment Fund, named after a town in Côte d'Ivoire where it's understood he spent a lot of time, and to it his winnings will go for "the protection and revitalization of forests, the preservation and regeneration of biodiversity and the support of family caregivers."

"I only played during large jackpots, for one purpose: to devote most of this sum to the creation of a foundation," he wrote in an open letter on the Fund's website.

"During my life, I have witnessed in Côte d'Ivoire the incessant passage of trucks loaded with trees cut in the forests of Burkina Faso," he told Le Parisien.

"We have never seen an initiative of this size, but there again, we have rarely seen such high winnings," said an operator of the French National Lottery. "Often, these things go hand-in-hand."

Indeed it was the second-largest jackpot in the lottery's history. The winner is only known to be a retiree in the south of France, who wants to spread the message that humans can preserve the natural environment if we want to—and that giving makes people more happy than having.

"Above all, it is the expression of a conviction that I want to share with as many people as possible: giving makes people happy, and constitutes a tremendous lever for transforming indignation into concrete and useful actions," the man said, according to Euro News.

Featured image: Magnus D, CC license

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