DiCaprio and Bezos pledge $200 million to rescue 100 most endangered species
Foundations led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeff Bezos have launched a $200 million initiative to protect a hundred of the planet’s most threatened animals.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re:wild and Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Earth Fund have unveiled the Phoenix Species Project, a $200 million fund dedicated to saving one hundred of Earth’s most imperiled species. The initiative targets a range of animals, from Madagascar’s golden-crowned sifaka lemur to the Malayan pangolin and the pink land iguana of the Galápagos. The partnership grew out of a 2021 discussion that included Bezos, his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos, and Re:wild co-founder Wes Sechrest, leading to consultations with regional authorities, conservation NGOs and Indigenous communities.
Grants will be awarded to groups such as Association Fanamby, enabling them to expand successful but under-funded conservation actions. Project leaders stress that the scale of funding and global visibility could change what is achievable for species on the brink of extinction. The effort is billed as the largest single pool of money ever devoted exclusively to reviving critically endangered wildlife.
Why it matters
Massive funding could prevent the extinction of dozens of species facing climate-driven habitat loss.
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