Jeff Bezos, Leonardo DiCaprio Part of $200 Million Effort to Protect the Amazon

At the same event earlier in the week, the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, or POP, announced it would invest US$200 million over four years to assist the Brazilian government in protecting the rainforest and achieving zero deforestation by 2030. The funds also will support the government’s goal to shift to a green economy that supports local communities. 

POP is backed by the Bezos Earth Fund and 10 other organizations, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re:wild, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. The group, which is open to new donors and partners, formed less than two years ago to support a global goal of protecting 30% of the planet by 2030, focusing on areas that are most important for biodiversity. 

According to POP, nearly 17% of the Amazon rainforest has already disappeared. Scientists have said the forest may no longer be sustainable once 20% to 25% of it is gone. 

“The Amazon is one of the most important areas in the world for biodiversity and climate and supports the lives of millions of indigenous peoples and local communities,” said
Cristián Samper,
leader of Nature Solutions at the Bezos Earth Fund, which formed in early 2020 to provide US$10 billion in funding to a range of conservation and climate goals by 2030. 

The fund is committed, “to protect this critical region while also reducing the drivers of deforestation by finding alternative paths to prosperity for the people living in the Amazon,” Samper said in a news release.

The grants from the Bezos Earth fund include nearly US$31 million to support local and international groups that are creating and managing protected areas and indigenous territories. Specifically, the grants will help create more than 19.8 million acres of new protected and conserved areas, and to improve protection for 148 million acres of tropical forest. 

Groups receiving funding include Nia Tero, a Seattle-based nongovernmental organization; the Rainforest Foundation Norway; the Virginia-based Rainforest Trust; and the Wildlife Conservation Society. 

The Earth Fund also granted US$5 million to DiCaprio’s Re:wild. The group will use the funds to support 20 groups in nine states in the Amazon with detecting and combating fires. 

To boost economic development and provide jobs, the fund is granting US$9.7 million to the Environmental Defense Fund, Brazilian NGOs, and indigenous groups to provide carbon markets training and support for indigenous people and local communities often left out of these markets. Another US$6 million will go to Instituto Clima e Sociedade to support the creation of policies and businesses to maintain the forest while providing jobs. 

The POP challenge effort already has directed US$14.3 million to detecting and combating forest fires. It also intends to bolster Brazil’s conservation goals, which include combating illegal forest clearing for pasture and permanently protecting nearly 145 million acres of public lands in the Amazon that are not currently designated, according to a news release. 

Funds will also go to strengthening the management of existing protected areas and reinforcing indigenous rights. 

The GEF, a Washington, D.C., multilateral environmental fund, also announced it was providing another US$90 million to support regional and global biodiversity initiatives in Brazil. The funds include support for mapping biodiversity in indigenous territories, the GEF said.