Bezos Earth Fund Pledges $1B to Conserve Land and Sea in Critical Areas ‘We an and must reverse this’

Jeff Bezos has placed an additional $ 1 billion in the Bezos Earth Fund to spend on creating, expanding, managing and monitoring protected and conserved wilderness areas.

The money will take the form of grants to organizations working to preserve lands and guarantee the rights of indigenous peoples in the Congo, the tropical Andes Mountains and in Oceania.

The latest pledge is in addition to the $ 10 billion it has already dedicated to tackling climate change more directly, and nearly a billion of those millions have already been distributed as grants.

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“When people long for good times and glamorize the past, they are almost always wrong. By most metrics, life is better than in the past, ”Bezos said in a statement. “But there is one notable exception: The natural world is no better today than it was 500 years ago, when we enjoyed pristine forests, clean rivers, and the pristine air of the pre-industrial era.”

The first round of donations went primarily to big, well-organized global conservation names like WWF.

However, the Amazon founder is not just throwing money away. Unsurprisingly, the man who transformed global e-commerce has a bigger plan. Investigate has shown that if governments simply recognized all existing indigenous land claims, it would be the biggest conservation victory since the invention of the national park.

The regions Bezos Earth Background is seeking to preserve are, to use the language of a famous television conservationist, “hit a block” with indigenous groups.

“Conservation is one of the most effective poverty reduction strategies we have”, said Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed. “I warmly welcome this generous commitment, which will help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. “

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“We can and must reverse this anomaly,” Bezos added. “By uniting with the right focus and ingenuity, we can have the benefits of our modern lives and a prosperous natural world. I hope this commitment inspires others to make their own promises to protect and conserve nature and help fight climate change. “

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