DiCaprio and Bezos Commit $200 Million to Save 100 Endangered Species Globally

Two major philanthropic organizations announced Tuesday the launch of an ambitious $200 million conservation initiative targeting 100 of the world’s most at-risk animal species. The Phoenix Species Project, led by Re:wild—a foundation co-founded by actor Leonardo DiCaprio—and the Bezos Earth Fund, represents the largest dedicated funding effort of its kind for species recovery.

The initiative emerged from conversations that began in 2021 when DiCaprio and Re:wild CEO Wes Sechrest, a biologist, met with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who serve as chair and vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund respectively. DiCaprio had spent years developing the concept of a coordinated global effort to protect species threatened by habitat loss and climate change.

Target species range from Madagascar’s golden-crowned sifaka lemur to Southeast Asia’s Malayan pangolin and the pink land iguana found only on Wolf Volcano in the Galápagos Islands. The project also focuses on the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander in North Carolina, the Visayan warty pig in the Philippines, and Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna from New Guinea, named after the 100-year-old naturalist David Attenborough.

The funds will support conservation organizations working to sustain smaller endangered species programs that lack adequate resources. Tiana Andriamanana, executive director of Madagascar-based Association Fanamby, noted the golden-crowned sifaka had been protected through minimal budgets, stating the new funding and global platform “change what is possible” for the species’ survival.