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Dr Mark Mulligan has started a new website which lets you sponsor an area of conservation land

DR MARK Mulligan is an unassuming father-of-two from Leigh in pursuit of an awesome agenda.

He is quietly auctioning off 10 per cent of the earth's surface area. And he isn't even an estate agent, just an idealistic academic.

Mark took his doctorate in geography and now works as a researcher and tutor at King's College, London.

His speciality is deforestation, a subject that has taken him around the world and to some wild and far-flung places.

"I have seen at first hand the human results of environmental destruction, and yes, I suppose there is an urge to do what you can to put things right," he says.

The idea that Mark hit upon to help save the planet stems from what he calls "my interest in the interface between technology and nature".

His idea, www.healthyplanet.org kicked off this month. It allows anyone to "adopt" an area of land for conservation.

Prospective foster parents begin the process by window-shopping for the piece of land of their choice, using Google Earth or other online satellite programs. The entire world is their shopping basket. The going rate is around £45 per square kilometre for a year.

"They can choose somewhere exotic or remote, or they can just choose a place that's round the corner from where they live," Mark explains.

Once they have sponsored a piece of land through Healthy Planet, the name they have chosen will pop up like an affable local gaffer whenever someone anywhere in the world surfs over their patch.

Mark thinks that it will make a popular gift, particularly as a present to megalomaniac dads and husbands..

Healthy Planet people automatically become part of a like-minded online community, a sort of Green in the Facebook.

Mark terms these people "guardians".

Between themselves, guardians can work out how best to use their combined resources. For instance, they can direct their sponsorship to a particular project run by the World Wildlife Fund or one of the other environmental charities linked to Healthy Planet.

Guardians are spoilt for choice in deciding which bit of the planet they want to save.

"There are around 70,000 nature reserves globally, with about 200 of them in the UK," Mark says. It sounds as if, for all the talk about environmental destruction, Mother Nature has actually got it made. But Mark quickly sets the picture straight.

"Many of them are what we call paper parks'," he says. "They have official status, but things are different on the ground."

Thanks to neglect, or corruption, or inadequate resources to police them, all too many parks are being eroded.

"Even in Britain, parks could be under threat from climate change and pollution," Mark says. "But one of the things that Healthy Planet can do is to build up a volunteer community who can keep watch on the parks on the screen. They will be able to monitor any threat, and if necessary divert resources that way."

Healthy Planet was set up by Mark, with help from a few friends.

Initial funding of about £10,000 was provided as a donation by a businessman friend, Shaylesh Patel, from West London.

"Most of the money has gone on developing the website," Mark says. He adds: "Shaylesh is typical (of the people involved). He wants to make a contribution to society. He's investing both his money and his business expertise. There has also been encouragement from Google itself. They have been very co-operative," Mark says. "They realise that it is putting their technology to good use."

As with other online communities, the plan is to allow maximum power to users.

They are the ones who will grow Healthy Planet and dictate the ultimate shape it takes.

Taking a warning from some national and international charities that have become bureaucratically bloated, HealthyPlanet dispenses with encumbrances such as offices, financial targets and micromanagement.

It is not a commercial company but a charity, registered in February, and run by a small group of trustees.

They will ensure the original vision remains in place, but at arm's length. True to its name, Healthy Planet is planned to grow organically.

Mark, though, has no intention of letting go of his baby completely.

He plans to stay on for the long haul as chief trustee.

"I'll always be involved in major decisions," he says.

With 20 postgraduate students under his wing and a healthy planet to run, not to mention a young family, Mark still needs to get around to acquiring his own patch of nature reserve.

When he does, it will be dedicated to his wife Sophia and his two children. "They have had to put up with an awful lot while we were getting Healthy Planet together," he says.

Mark has already identified his site. No Pacific archipelago or Amazonian jungle for this much- travelled man. He has his eyes on a reserve within sight of his own doorstep - Two Tree Island.

"I come originally from the Midlands, but I plan to stay in Leigh," he says. "It shows how a big human population can co-exist with a natural environment. It's an inspirational place." Given the result of that inspiration, it could be that Leigh is about to save the world.

8:00am Saturday 31st May 2008

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