WASHINGTON (IA) — A conservation initiative backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio has pledged $200 million to support the recovery of 100 of the world’s most threatened species across 30 countries.
The Phoenix Species Project was announced on August 4 by Re:wild, a conservation organisation co-founded by DiCaprio, and the Bezos Earth Fund, which is chaired by Bezos. The initiative aims to strengthen efforts to protect species classified as Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List.
The funding commitment comprises $100 million from the Bezos Earth Fund and $100 million from Re:wild, with additional support from DiCaprio, Age of Union and the Todd Graves Family Foundation, according to the organisations.
The project is designed to provide sustained financial and technical support for conservation programmes that often struggle to secure funding beyond short-term grants. More than 100 local and international partners, including Indigenous communities, conservationists, scientists and governments, are expected to lead recovery efforts.
Species across 30 countries
The selected species include the golden-crowned sifaka, a lemur found in Madagascar; the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander, which inhabits a restricted area of North Carolina in the United States; and the Malayan pangolin, a mammal threatened by illegal wildlife trafficking.
Other species on the list include the Visayan warty pig of the Philippines, the pink land iguana of the Galápagos Islands and Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna from New Guinea. The programme covers mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and plants.
Conservation measures will be tailored to individual species and habitats. Depending on local conditions, these may include habitat restoration, conservation breeding, the relocation of animals, disease management and efforts to control invasive species.
The IUCN Species Survival Commission is serving as the project’s scientific knowledge partner. The initiative’s organisers say they intend to monitor progress through changes in species populations and the reduction of threats to their survival.
Long-term funding for conservation
The project follows years of discussions among conservation groups, philanthropists, local communities and governments about how to improve support for species facing extinction.
Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund have described the initiative as the largest single philanthropic commitment dedicated exclusively to species recovery across multiple groups of plants and animals.
Its stated objective is to help populations recover rather than merely slow their decline. The organisations say sustained funding will give local conservation teams more time to implement and evaluate measures designed for the specific needs of each species.
Whether the initiative achieves its goals will depend on the effectiveness of those measures and their implementation across the different regions involved.