Over 30,000 species face critical danger: Amazon's Jeff Bezos backs $500 million wildlife plan, but one key detail is missing

In a bid to save world’s most threatened species, nine private funders are bringing along a windfall of $500 million for the New Species Recovery Alliance, launched at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP17). The Bezos Earth Fund and eight others will work together over the next five years to prevent extinctions and recover the world’s most threatened species. The Amazon founder along with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re:wild, the Colossal Foundation, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Fondation Segré, the Franklinia Foundation, the Rainforest Trust, and WildLives Earth have pledged more than $500 million over five years to help prevent extinctions and recover threatened wildlife.

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Announced on October 16, 2026, during the United Nations COP17 biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, the Species Recovery Alliance brings together conservation organizations and private foundations with different areas of expertise. Its central objective is to improve the prospects of species already facing severe extinction risks.


The key detail that is not known is the individual contributions of the nine members have not been specified publicly. The announcement therefore does not let people know how much money the Bezos Earth Fund itself will provide to the new alliance. The funders will not pool their money and each member will instead line up its own grants with the others and work with local conservation groups on recovery plans built to show measurable results. Progress will be tracked against the Red List of Threatened Species and the Green Status of Species, both kept by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

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Jeff Bezos backs $500 million wildlife plan

The Bezos Earth Fund is led by president and chief executive Tom Taylor under the direction of chairman Jeff Bezos and vice-chair Lauren Sánchez Bezos. The $500 million pledge is a collective commitment from all nine organisations. The announcement did not reveal how much each member would contribute individually.

In the past, the Bezos Earth Fund made environmental commitment of $10 billion, of which $2 billion was dedicated to conserving and restoring nature. The Bezos Earth Fund has also joined hands with Re:wild, pledging a $100 million commitment to the Phoenix Species Project, a separate initiative launched with Leonardo DiCaprio in August 2026.

As Cristián Samper, Managing Director and Leader of Nature Solutions at the Bezos Earth Fund, told LuxuryLaunches, “Protected areas alone cannot save every endangered species,", thus calling for more funders and governments to join recovery efforts.

"I'm very pleased to announce today that we're launching a new Species Recovery Donor Alliance," Cristián Samper said at the summit. "Conservationists have shown that species can be brought back from the brink," he said in a statement released with the announcement.

More than 31,000 species face extinction risks

From the critically endangered harlequin poison dart frog to the endangered golden lion tamarin and vulnerable lowland tapir, these animals show why conservation efforts are urgently needed to prevent more species from becoming extinct.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, more than 31,000 species are classified as extinct in the wild, critically endangered or endangered. This includes more than 10,000 species in the critically endangered category.

The conservation challenge extends beyond protecting natural habitats. Research cited by the alliance indicates that 57% of threatened species also require targeted interventions to improve their chances of survival. These measures can include conservation breeding, habitat restoration, reintroducing species into the wild, controlling invasive species, preventing poaching and addressing diseases that threaten wildlife populations.

“For too long, species recovery has not received the same level of attention and investment as efforts to address climate change,” said Wes Sechrest, co-founder and CEO of Re:wild, in the alliance’s announcement.

Built on an earlier Bezos project

The $500 million Species Recovery Alliance is an expansion of earlier conservation work backed by Jeff Bezos. In August, the Bezos Earth Fund and Re:wild launched the Phoenix Species Project with $200 million and each organization contributed $100 million. Its goal is to help recover 100 critically endangered species across 30 countries, including Madagascar’s golden-crowned sifaka lemur and Australia’s night parrot.

Lauren Sánchez Bezos explained this with the words: “Not managing their decline. Recovering them. That's the whole difference.” Jeff Bezos established the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, pledging $10 billion of his own money toward fighting climate change and protecting nature by 2030.