LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) – The Bezos Earth Fund, established by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Re:wild, co-founded by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, on Tuesday pledged an initial $200 million to support the recovery of critically endangered species.
• The Phoenix Species Project aims to help preserve 100 species across 30 countries through long-term funding and locally led conservation efforts involving Indigenous Peoples, local communities, scientists and governments.
• Recovery measures include conservation breeding, habitat restoration, disease management and control of invasive species, with scientific support from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission.
• According to the IUCN more than 49,000 species, or around 28% of those it has assessed, are threatened with extinction.
• The species targeted by the Phoenix project include the golden-crowned sifaka lemur from Madagascar and the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander from North Carolina.
• The project is also backed by non-profit Age of Union and the Todd Graves Family Foundation.
• “One hundred species, thirty countries, and a real commitment to bringing them back. Not managing their decline. Recovering them,” said Lauren Sanchez Bezos, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund. “We know how to do this. We just have to stay committed long enough to see it through.”
• The $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund says that since its launch in 2020 it has made 41 grants totalling $591 million on projects restoring and conserving nature. Those projects include marine conservation and restoring degraded land in the United States.
(Reporting by Simon JessopEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
