Nine philanthropic organizations have collectively pledged $5 billion over ten years in support of the creation, expansion, management, and monitoring of protected and conserved areas of land, inland water, and sea.

Announced at an event convened by the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People (HAC) on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, the commitments launch the Protecting Our Planet Challenge and will fund efforts to meet HAC's 30x30 goal to protect 30 percent of land and sea by 2030. Supported by seventy-two countries, the 30x30 campaign is focused on working with Indigenous peoples, local communities, civil society, and governments to prevent mass extinctions and bolster resilience to climate change.

Pledges include $1 billion from the Bezos Earth Fund, $500 million each from the Wyss Foundation and Rainforest Trust, and commitments from Arcadia, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Nia Tero, Re:wild, and the Rob and Melani Walton Foundation. The Protecting Our Planet Challenge is calling for additional private and governmental financial commitments to support 30x30 as the climate crisis threatens communities and wildlife across the globe.

The Green Climate Fund, which provides funding to help developing countries meet their Paris Agreement commitments, also announced a commitment of nearly $9 billion to restore ecosystems while creating jobs. In addition, seventy-five financial institutions have committed to protecting and restoring biodiversity through their finance activities and investments through the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge.

"For our grandchildren and their grandchildren to inherit a balanced, functioning planet, we have to rapidly slow the rate at which our economies are destroying nature," said Wyss Foundation founder and chair Hansjorg Wyss. "This challenge is why I continue working alongside local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and nations to quickly narrow the enormous gap between how little of the natural world is protected and how much needs to be protected."

"Investing in the rights of Indigenous peoples and their guardianship of territory is one of the most important, and most overlooked, strategies for addressing the existential threats of climate change and biodiversity loss," said Nia Tero board chair Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, who previously served as UN special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous people. "As an organization committed to securing Indigenous guardianship of thriving ecosystems, we applaud these leading-edge funders for dramatically expanding support of this essential pathway to achieve the 30x30 targets."

(Photo credit: Campaign for Nature)