DiCaprio and Bezos Commit $200 Million to Endangered Species Recovery

Foundations supported by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeff Bezos have announced a major initiative. They will provide $200 million to aid 100 of the world’s most threatened species. These include lemurs, salamanders, pangolins, pigs, and echidnas. DiCaprio’s Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund are spearheading the Phoenix Species Project. This effort is described as the largest fund ever aimed solely at the recovery of critically endangered species.

DiCaprio has long considered a significant effort to protect species at risk from climate change. In 2021, DiCaprio and Re:wild co-founder Wes Sechrest met with Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos. They are leaders of the Bezos Earth Fund, with Bezos as chair and Sánchez as vice chair. This meeting led to discussions with local governments, environmental groups, and Indigenous peoples. Their goal was to find the best ways to reverse the decline of vulnerable species, culminating in the Phoenix Species Project.

The initiative targets several species for protection:

• The golden-crowned sifaka, a lemur from Madagascar
• The Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander in North Carolina
• The Visayan warty pig in the Philippines
• The Cozumel harvest mouse off the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico
• The pink land iguana on Wolf Volcano in the Galápagos Islands
• The Malayan pangolin, also known as the Sunda pangolin in Southeast Asia
• Tanzania’s pancake tortoise
• The starry night harlequin toad in Colombia
• Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna from New Guinea

The project aims to provide long-term support to previously successful but limited conservation efforts. Tiana Andriamanana, executive director of Association Fanamby, emphasized the importance of this funding. The golden-crowned sifaka has been protected on inadequate budgets. “We’ve protected the golden-crowned sifaka for years on a budget that would never match what this species deserves, but letting it go extinct was never an option,” stated Andriamanana. “This funding, this global platform, and technical support change what is possible.”