Bezos Puts $1 Billion of $10 Billion Climate Pledge Into Conservation

This month, the fund gave $20 million to four groups focused on climate justice, part of a commitment to give such groups $150 million by the end of the year.

The grants announced on Monday will put a priority on regions and countries where “local communities and Indigenous peoples are placed at the heart of conservation programs,” the fund said. Whether the 30×30 effort offers Indigenous communities a large enough role in conservation efforts is a question that community leaders and scholars have raised.

The announcement called the $1 billion commitment “the first of a three-part nature strategy,” and said there would be future commitments in “landscape restoration and on food system transformation.”

Amazon — with its fleets of trucks and planes crisscrossing the country and the globe, its branded boxes piling up on curbs on recycling day and its vast data centers gobbling electricity — became a more and more frequent target of climate advocates, including internally. Employees pressed the company to do something about its contributions to emissions and global warming, staging walkouts and talking publicly about how it could improve.

In 2019, Amazon committed to meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement 10 years ahead of schedule by reaching carbon neutrality by 2040.

Mr. Bezos stepped down as chief executive this year and said he wanted time to focus on other commitments. For many years, philanthropy was not one of his main interests. He long preferred to focus on Amazon and other private ventures, especially the rocket company Blue Origin, which sent Mr. Bezos on a brief flight into space in July. He also owns The Washington Post.

In 2018, Mr. Bezos and his wife at the time, MacKenzie Scott, pledged $2 billion to start a network of Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities and to help homeless families. It was his largest commitment up to that point.

Then in February 2020, Mr. Bezos made the $10 billion pledge on climate change and conservation. He announced the Bezos Earth Fund in a post on Instagram, saying, “Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet.”

Catrin Einhorn and Karen Weise contributed reporting.