As is so often the case, the surpassing of a billion in personal net worth acts as the catalyst for charitable donations of land and capital, and Guy Laliberté is the most recent to follow the path of Rockefeller.

The founder of Cirque du Soleil, Laliberté is donating all the money required for his hometown to protect a large piece of natural riparian woodland and wetlands that sits adjacent to it.

A suburb of Montreal on the south bank of the Saint Lawrence River, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville received $5 million from Mr. Laliberté, their most famous resident, for the purchase.

"It is with great pleasure that I offer this land to the City of Saint-Bruno, the city where I grew up and where I still live. I have been going to the park since my childhood and that is why I was quick to accept the City's proposal when they offered to make this space a protected place that all residents could enjoy," said Guy, according to Le Journal de Montreal in a translated report.

The Journal saw the transaction papers, and report that they stipulate the land must only and ever be used for park purposes.

"I would like to warmly thank Mr. Guy Laliberté who agreed to cede this magnificent wooded area to the City at no cost to our citizens," said the mayor of Saint-Bruno, Ludovic Grisé Farand, in a press release.

Saint-Bruno is the administrative center of the Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park, which while small contains much of the same pristine habitat of coastal forest and wetlands, and is listed as category II by the IUCN.

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