This week, Michelin-star Chef Jeremy Ford and his talented Aruban team from Terra by Jeremy Ford, the acclaimed restaurant at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, traded their chef knives for shovels, kneeling into the island’s warm earth to plant native trees inside The Bucuti Tara – GMC Nature Preserve. The hands-on effort is a heartfelt thank-you to the island that feeds and inspires the restaurant every day, and to the resort it calls home. This is also the first step in a lasting commitment between Terra and Bucuti & Tara to help restore Aruba’s natural landscape at the resort’s nature preserve.
Joined by a spirited group of team members from both Terra and Bucuti & Tara, the planting unfolded within the resort’s protected 130,000-square-meter nature preserve in Noord, where native vegetation is being carefully coaxed back to life to nurture wildlife habitats, biodiversity, and natural carbon capture. Land once at risk of being lost to development now flourishes as living proof that tourism can heal rather than consume the Caribbean landscape. Beneath Aruba’s trade winds and among the freshly planted saplings, the two teams worked side by side, sinking Terra’s roots a little deeper into the island it loves.
Built by Aruba, For Aruba: A Restaurant That Gives Back to the Island
Terra was created with Aruba and for Aruba, and this initiative carries that same spirit straight into the soil. Chef Ford built the restaurant hand in hand with local partners Maurice and Karim Neme, third-generation Aruban hospitality pioneers whose grandfather and father opened the island’s very first hotels. Together with their team, they shaped Terra as a true Aruban venture, one that honors the island’s history, its producers, and its people, and that devotion shows up on every plate. The restaurant sources from local farmers and celebrates the Aruban fishermen who bring in the day’s catch.
What truly makes Terra special, though, is the people who bring it to life each night. In keeping with a cherished Terra tradition, every member of the team is named on the restaurant’s menus and website, a quiet insistence that everyone, from the kitchen to the dining room, shares in the craft and the pride. The kitchen is led by two of Aruba’s most celebrated chefs, Executive Chef Jeanclaude Werleman and Chef de Cuisine Moises Ramirez, alongside Zachary Salomon, Christopher Webb, Dylan Cardona, Jazmin Briones, Jiayi “Nina” Yang, Ariana Alzamora, Giovany Leon, Giovanni Orbino and Juan Manuel Galvan. Out front, the experience is carried by Terra’s front-of-house ensemble: General Manager Jessika Theysen, Zaira Werleman, Yulitza Osorio, Anoushka Geerman, Livan Meritè, Valeria Soto, Jennie Holmer and Cesar Garcia. They are the heart and soul of Terra, and the reason you feel at home when you dine.
Terra has also joined Bucuti & Tara’s food collection program, giving kitchen scraps a second life. The team first reinvents trimmings and peels into cocktails, sauces, and dressings. Whatever is left feeds the herds of local pig farmers instead of rotting in a landfill and releasing CO2 and methane. Planting native trees is the next step, grounded in a simple belief that caring for Aruba means caring for its land, its waters, its people and its future all at once.
“For me, everything begins with the land. Before I am a chef, I am a farmer who believes in growing, nurturing, and giving back. Planting these trees in the Bucuti Tara GMC Nature Preserve alongside my team and our resort partners felt less like work and more like gratitude. Aruba has given us a home, an extraordinary community, and a team whose passion inspires me every day,” shared Chef Ford. “It was also a true honor to plant next to Mr. Ewald Biemans. I’ve never met a human who cares more deeply about the future of his people than Mr. Biemans. Every conversation with him leaves me learning something greater than the last. The level of sustainable development he has created for Aruba is inspiring beyond words. Today, planting trees beside him felt bigger than the moment itself. It was a reminder that protecting Aruba’s green spaces is not just important, it’s part of leaving something beautiful behind for the next generation.”
From Ford’s Farm to Aruba’s Future: Chef Jeremy Ford Plants the Seeds of Sustainability
That farming instinct runs deep. Through his Florida-based Ford’s Farm, Chef Ford has built a culinary philosophy centered on seasonality, thoughtful sourcing, low-waste practices, and a deep respect for the bond between food and the land. He also owns and leads Miami’s acclaimed Stubborn Seed, which has been recognized with both a Michelin Star (for its 5th consecutive year) and a Michelin Green Star, two of the rarest honors a chef can hold at once. Those same values shape Terra by Jeremy Ford, which opened at Bucuti & Tara in October 2025 and quickly became one of Aruba’s most sought-after tables, with Forbes calling it “the most coveted reservation to score.”
The collaboration reflects the shared heart of Terra and Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, the Caribbean’s first and only certified carbon-neutral resort, where hospitality and conservation work hand in hand to protect Aruba’s fragile ecosystems and natural beauty.
Why The Bucuti Tara – GMC Nature Preserve Matters for Aruba’s Future
The Bucuti Tara – GMC Nature Preserve is devoted to restoration, reforestation and habitat protection, and it is protected forever. This land can never be developed, ensuring it will remain a living preserve for Aruba for generations to come. Every native tree planted here helps rebuild biodiversity, strengthen local ecosystems and build long-term resilience for the island.
The preserve is also a refuge for Aruba’s own wildlife, from Prikichis (the brown-throated parakeet) and Wara Waras to the Shoco, the Aruban burrowing owl, along with the pollinators and hundreds of native and endemic species that keep the island’s natural balance alive. Through this ongoing work, the preserve carries conservation beyond the resort’s grounds and into the active care of Aruba’s wild landscapes.
As travelers increasingly look for meaningful, intentional journeys, collaborations like this show how luxury hospitality and environmental responsibility can leave a lasting, positive mark on a destination and its local community.
This first planting is only the beginning. Chef Ford and the Terra team have pledged to return to the preserve season after season alongside Bucuti & Tara, giving back both in the soil and in the kitchen. The restaurant will dedicate special menus to raising funds for the preserve while its team takes an active, hands-on role in the reforestation ahead. Guests and locals alike are warmly invited to join the year-round voluntourism opportunities the resort offers, helping protect Aruba’s natural beauty long after a meal is finished or a vacation ends, so everyone can leave the island a little greener than they found it.
To learn more and to make reservations, visit Terraaruba.com and Bucuti.com.
About Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort
Recognized as the Caribbean’s first and only certified CarbonNeutral® hotel since 2018, Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort is celebrated globally as the No. 5 Hotel in the World and No. 1 Hotel in the Caribbean, according to Tripadvisor. Aruba’s premier adults-only, laidback luxury resort, Bucuti & Tara, is the vision of award-winning hotelier and environmentalist Ewald Biemans, who has been honored with multiple Hotelier of the Year accolades for his hospitality excellence and pioneering sustainability leadership.
Nestled along the pristine white sands of Eagle Beach, protected nesting ground for sea turtles and named one of the “Dream Beaches of the World,” Bucuti & Tara offers 104 elegant rooms, suites and penthouses. Guests enjoy guaranteed sunbeds, a freshwater infinity pool, indulgent spa treatments, and “no surprise rates” including accommodations, all taxes and fees, full daily breakfast, WiFi and in-room tablet, EV chargers, parking and local calls.
At the heart of the resort’s culinary experience is Elements, an award-winning oceanfront restaurant serving healthy, locally inspired cuisine. Guests can also enjoy Tara Lounge, private romantic beach dining, and as of Oct. 2025, the highly anticipated Terra by Jeremy Ford. Helmed by the visionary chef leading Miami’s Michelin Star and Michelin Green Star Stubborn Seed, Ford brings his signature artistry and sustainability ethos to Aruba, crafting a menu that honors Aruban ingredients, fishermen, and farmers while blending bold, innovative flavors with refined presentation.
Proudly LGBTQ+ friendly, Bucuti & Tara proudly holds IGLTA and TAG Approved® status. The resort’s deep commitment to sustainable luxury has earned prestigious certifications including CarbonNeutral®, LEED Gold, Green Globe Platinum and Travelife Gold. Named the World’s Most Sustainable Hotel/Resort by Green Globe in 2016, Bucuti & Tara’s comprehensive sustainability program was praised by the United Nations as “highly replicable and scalable” for hotels worldwide, all aligning seamlessly with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
