Nine funders commit more than $500 million to bring threatened species back from the brink

Nine private funders and conservation groups have committed more than $500 million over the next five years to recover the world's most threatened species, Re:wild announced on 16 October. The Species Recovery Alliance was launched at COP17, the UN biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, and aims to become the largest coordinated philanthropic effort dedicated to bringing species back.

The founding members are the Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust, the Bezos Earth Fund, the Colossal Foundation, the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Fondation Segré, the Franklinia Foundation, Rainforest Trust, Re:wild and WildLives Earth.

Money for the species closest to extinction

The alliance will fund the recovery of species listed on the IUCN Red List as extinct in the wild, critically endangered or endangered. More than 31,000 species fall into those groups, including more than 10,000 that are critically endangered, according to the release.

Protecting habitat is not always enough. Research cited by Re:wild shows that 57% of threatened species also need hands-on help, such as conservation breeding, genetic rescue, reintroductions, disease control, removing invasive species or stopping poaching. That is the kind of work the money is meant to pay for, carried out by conservation groups and local partners.

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

Coordinated, not pooled

The members will not put their money into one fund. Instead they will align their grants, share what they learn and report progress using two IUCN tools: the Red List and the Green Status of Species, which measures how far a species has recovered. The alliance has not said how many species it will support or how the $500 million is divided among its members.

It builds on an existing partnership. In August, the Bezos Earth Fund and Re:wild launched the Phoenix Species Project, committing $100 million each to recover 100 of the world's most threatened species in 30 countries, according to IUCN. Re:wild's release does not say whether that money is part of the new $500 million.

Governments made their own move at the same summit. Seventeen countries, led by Colombia and Armenia, launched the Coalition of Action to Recover Endangered Species (CARES) to speed up national action under Target 4 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The alliance's funding is separate from that coalition.

“Conservationists have shown that species can be brought back from the brink.” — Cristián Samper, managing director and leader of nature solutions, Bezos Earth Fund

A call for more funders

The founding members are asking other foundations to join, and Samper called on more governments to sign up to CARES. Progress will be tracked against the IUCN Red List and Green Status, the yardsticks behind many species recovery stories. The first grants and the list of target species have not yet been announced.