In pic: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
The fund, Andes Amazon Fund, Nia Tero and Rainforest Trust announced a collective initial pledge of $12.5 million to support the country’s conservation plans, including proposed permanent protection for the Acarai–Rupununi Corridor. The corridor covers more than 1 million hectares, or approximately 2.4 million acres. The pledge combines new and existing funding and supports Guyana’s wider ambition to protect 30% of its lands and waters by 2030.
Funding will support securing legal protection, establishing boundaries, and safeguarding the landscape against mining, industrial logging, and other incompatible activities, according to the joint announcement. Jeff Bezos’s Earth Fund is backing forest protection in Guyana. The government is advancing a proposal to permanently protect the corridor. Indigenous Peoples and local communities are also expected to participate in conservation planning, governance and management. The initiative aims to support their livelihoods while protecting the environment. Padu Franco, senior programme manager for the Andes and Amazon at the Bezos Earth Fund, linked the pledge to the fund’s broader rainforest work.