by Fang Block: The Bezos Earth Fund announced it will grant US$1 billion to help protect and conserve nature and indigenous peoples and cultures beginning with the Congo Basin…
the tropical Andes, and the tropical Pacific Ocean, the fund announced at a climate week leaders reception in Manhattan on Monday.
This is the largest pledge to date by the US$10 billion Earth Fund, which was launched in 2020 by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The fund’s 16 initial recipients, announced last November, received a total of US$791 million in grants. Major beneficiary organizations included The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense Fund, World Resources Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund, which each received US$100 million from the fund.
Earlier this month, Bezos Earth pledged an additional US$230.7 million to support a dozen nonprofits working to address climate and economic justice.
The US$1 billion pledged Monday will begin to be distributed this year, with a focus on regions and countries “where local communities and indigenous peoples are placed at the heart of conservation programs,” according to the Bezos Earth Fund.
“By coming together with the right focus and ingenuity, we can have both the benefits of our modern lives and a thriving natural world,” Bezos, 57, said in a statement. “I hope this commitment inspires others to make their own pledges to protect and conserve nature and help in the fight against climate change. A job this big needs many allies.”
The pledge is the first of a three-part nature-focused strategy the Bezos Earth Fund will support. While the focus this year is on conservation, future commitments will be for landscape restoration and on food-system transformation, the fund said.
The fund did not provide details about the future plans, which will likely address emerging needs and opportunities.
The US$10 billion Bezos Earth Fund is expected to be fully allocated by 2030, aligning with a global conservation initiative called 30×30, a goal to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030. The commitment was initiated by the Center for Biological Diversity and adopted by the U.N. during its convention on biological diversity in 2020 in Kunming, China.
Environmental protection is one of the key topics the world’s leaders meet to discuss during the U.N. general assembly, currently underway in New York.
