Leonardo DiCaprio Teams Up With Jeff Bezos on $200 Million Plan to Save Endangered Species Worldwide

LOS ANGELES — Foundations funded and co-founded by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jeff Bezos have launched a $200 million initiative aimed at reviving 100 of Earth’s most threatened species, marking what organizers describe as the largest single philanthropic fund in history dedicated exclusively to recovering critically endangered wildlife.

DiCaprio’s conservation organization Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund are jointly leading the new effort, called the Phoenix Species Project, which the groups announced Tuesday. The initiative will target species facing imminent extinction across 30 countries, spanning mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and plants — including endangered lemurs, salamanders, pangolins, pigs and echidnas.

A years-long partnership finally taking shape

The project’s origins trace back several years, growing out of DiCaprio’s long-standing effort to organize a major concerted push to help species whose habitats and survival are threatened by climate change. In 2021, DiCaprio and Re:wild co-founder and CEO Wes Sechrest, a biologist, met with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, a former TV news reporter and host who now serves as vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund alongside her husband, who chairs the organization.

That meeting sparked a series of follow-up conversations involving local governments, environmental groups and Indigenous communities focused on how best to reverse the decline of the world’s most vulnerable species — conversations that ultimately culminated in the Phoenix Species Project’s launch.

How the funding breaks down

The Bezos Earth Fund is committing $100 million to the project, according to Variety, with Re:wild matching that amount through support from DiCaprio, along with additional contributions from Age of Union and the Todd Graves Family Foundation.

The initiative will operate in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, local communities, scientists and conservationists across the participating countries. It also supports broader international efforts tied to Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a global agreement that calls on governments to halt extinctions and improve the conservation status of endangered species. The Reverse the Red Action Partnership will work alongside the project to help governments identify priority species and implement recovery actions, while the IUCN Species Survival Commission — described as the world’s largest volunteer conservation science network — is serving as the initiative’s global knowledge partner.

A direct impact for grant recipients on the ground

Local conservation groups are already receiving support through the initiative. Tiana Andriamanana, executive director of Association Fanamby, one of the organizations set to receive a grant, described the funding as a turning point for efforts to protect the golden-crowned sifaka, a critically endangered lemur species found in Madagascar. “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,” Andriamanana said in a statement. “This funding, this global platform and technical support change what is possible.”

Sánchez Bezos frames the effort as a shift from managing decline to recovery

Lauren Sánchez Bezos framed the initiative’s ambitions in stark terms, emphasizing recovery rather than simply slowing species decline. “This project is our answer,” she said in a statement. “One hundred species, 30 countries and a real commitment to bringing them back. Not managing their decline. Recovering them. That’s the whole difference. We know how to do this. We just have to stay committed long enough to see it through.”

Among the species the project will focus on, according to the Hollywood Reporter, are the golden-crowned sifaka of Madagascar, the ancient shark-like bowmouth guitarfish, a small desert succulent illegally harvested for the ornamental plant trade in western South Africa, and tree-dwelling Hickory Nut Gorge species native to specific mountain habitats.

Part of a longer arc of environmental advocacy for both men

DiCaprio has built a decades-long public profile as an environmental advocate, dating back to founding his own foundation in 1998, shortly after finishing filming “Titanic,” with a focus on protecting the planet’s endangered species across more than 40 countries. His advocacy gained further national attention in 2016, when his best actor Oscar acceptance speech — which became the most-viewed best actor speech in YouTube history — closed with a direct appeal about climate change, urging audiences, “Let us not take this planet for granted.”

Bezos, for his part, established the Bezos Earth Fund in 2020, committing billions of dollars toward climate change and environmental restoration efforts globally. The Phoenix Species Project builds on both men’s separate track records of environmental philanthropy, bringing their respective organizations together under a single, targeted conservation effort focused specifically on species recovery rather than broader climate mitigation work.

Organizers describe the $200 million commitment as an initial investment rather than the full scope of the project’s eventual funding, with the initiative structured to provide long-term support for conservation efforts targeting the 100 identified species over an extended period. Additional details on specific country partnerships and individual species recovery plans are expected to be announced as local grant recipients, including groups like Association Fanamby, begin implementing programs in their respective regions.