Washington D.C., Dec. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Bezos Earth Fund and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced a continued partnership following last year’s initial investment. This year’s $30 million award will concentrate on investing in two large-scale landscapes that can greatly benefit from conservation funding: the Longleaf Landscape Stewardship Fund and the Northern Great Plains Program. Grants awarded with this funding are expected to generate immediate, overlapping benefits across three urgent areas of concern: advancing carbon goals to mitigate climate change, conserving wildlife biodiversity, and increasing community resilience.
“These ecosystems support phenomenal biodiversity as well as have enormous potential to sequester carbon at the scale necessary to have a measurable impact,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “Our carbon strategy in these two regions focuses on efficiently identifying and funding these landscape-scale projects generating the greatest possible benefits for carbon, habitats, wildlife and people.”
The initial award from the Bezos Earth Fund in 2022 resulted in 124 conservation projects funded across the U.S. in 47 states as well as Puerto Rico. In addition, two international projects were implemented in Saskatchewan, Canada and the Galapagos Islands. When completed, those initial projects will restore and protect more than 1.1 million acres of sensitive habitats for fish and wildlife and engage underserved communities across the nation, in addition to providing significant carbon sequestration benefits.
“Partnering with NFWF enables us to pair best-in-class, locally-led restoration initiatives with rigorous monitoring technologies and leveraged funds from other donors. The Bezos Earth Fund is proud to equip these local groups with the capital and capacity they need to grow,” said Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund. “Together they are restoring the health of landscapes that are globally significant for carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection.”
To provide the greatest return on the Bezos Earth Fund investment, NFWF will engage with its network of grantees and partners in these two programs to competitively award grants that support the implementation of nature-based climate solutions at scale. NFWF will focus its grant-making on projects that deliver near-term, on-the-ground impacts for carbon, biodiversity and communities. Through these grants, NFWF will help build capacity to implement nature-based solutions, particularly within underserved communities, to accelerate and amplify solutions to the long-term need to deliver climate solutions.
NFWF will focus investments through competitive grant-making on nature-based solutions that meaningfully improve carbon storage and sequestration while improving biodiversity and sustaining wildlife species and their habitats throughout the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem and the Northern Great Plains.
Both the Northern Great Plains and Longleaf Landscape Stewardship Fund request for proposals that include Bezos Earth Fund funding are currently accepting proposals. Requests for proposals may be accessed via the links above.
About the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Chartered by Congress in 1984, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) protects and restores the nation’s fish, wildlife, plants and habitats. The Foundation funds on-the-ground conservation projects across the United States and its territories and does not engage in advocacy or litigation. Working with federal, corporate and individual partners, NFWF has funded more than 6,000 organizations and generated a conservation impact of $7.4 billion. Learn more at www.nfwf.org.
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Rob Blumenthal National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (202) 857-0166 rob.blumenthal@nfwf.org
