[ad_1]
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the richest men in the world, announced on Monday that he plans to spend $1 billion on conservation in places like the Congo Basin, the Andes and tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean.
The announcement was the final step for the Bezos World Fund, its biggest philanthropic effort. 10 billion dollars committed last year. “Combined with the right focus and ingenuity, we can have the advantages of both our modern lives and a thriving natural world,” Mr. Bezos said at an event in New York on Monday.
According to the Fund’s statement, the money will be used “to create, expand, manage and monitor protected and protected areas”. a website On Monday.
Initiative is for support an international push To protect at least 30 percent of the Earth’s land and waters by 2030, known as 30×30. Led by Britain, Costa Rica and France, the plan aims to help tackle a global biodiversity crisis that is putting a million plant and animal species at risk of extinction. While climate change is part of the problem, activities such as farming and fishing have been even greater drivers of biodiversity loss. The 30×30 plan will seek to slow this by preserving pristine natural areas such as old-growth forests and wetlands that not only nurture biodiversity but also store carbon and filter water.
As the plan gained momentum, a challenge arose to help developing countries participate. Some of these nations are much richer in biodiversity than wealthy nations, many of which have already exploited their ancient forests and other ecosystems for profit.
Within a decade of announcing the Bezos World Fund, Mr. Bezos pledged to donate the entire $10 billion by 2030.
When he first presented his funding plan, skeptics pointed out that in all the headlines it was little more than a promise to give money. Over the past year and a half, the venture has begun to take shape.
The first big move came in November, when Mr. Bezos announced $791 million In donations to mainstream environmental and conservation organizations, including the World Wildlife Fund, Nature Conservation and Environmental Defense Fund. Critics of the grants saw them as highly conventional, but supporters said the larger, better-known groups were the ones that could quickly absorb larger sums of money.
Then in March, Mr. Bezos, hired Andrew SteerHe was the person who ran the World Resources Institute, a research organization at the time, as president and CEO of the Bezos World Fund. Lauren Sanchez, Mr. Bezos’ girlfriend, is the fund’s vice president, according to his new website.
Funded this month $20 million for four groups part of a commitment to giving to such groups, focused on climate justice 150 million dollars end of the year.
The fund said the grants announced Monday will prioritize regions and countries “where local communities and Indigenous peoples are placed at the center of conservation programmes.” One of both 30×30 The effort offers Indigenous communities a large enough role in conservation efforts, a question raised by community leaders and scientists.
The announcement described the $1 billion commitment as “the first of a three-part nature strategy” and said there will be future commitments “in landscape restoration and food system transformation.”
With fleets of trucks and planes roaming the country and the world, branded boxes piling up on the sidewalks on recycling day, and vast data centers swallowing electricity, Amazon has become an increasingly frequent target of climate advocates, including internal ones. Employees pressured the company to do something about its contributions to emissions and global warming, organized strikes and speak publicly about how to improve.
In 2019, Amazon committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2040, meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years ahead of schedule.
Mr. Bezos took a step back He served as CEO this year and said he wanted time to focus on other commitments. For many years, philanthropy was not one of his main interests. He has long preferred to focus on Amazon and other private ventures, particularly the rocket company Blue Origin, which sent Mr. Bezos on a mission. short flight into space In July. He is also the owner of The Washington Post.
“I’ve heard that seeing the Earth from space changes one’s view of the world,” he said at Monday’s event, “but I wasn’t prepared for how true that was.”
In 2018, Mr. Bezos and his then-wife MacKenzie Scott pledged $2 billion to launch a network of Montessori-inspired kindergartens and help homeless families in underserved communities. It was his biggest commitment so far.
Then in February 2020, Mr. Bezos committed $10 billion on climate change and conservation. Bezos announced the Earth Fund. Post on InstagramBy saying, “Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet.”
Catrin Einhorn and Karen Weise contributing reporting.
[ad_2]
Source link