Nine funders pledge more than $500 million to recover threatened species, without pooling the money

Nine private conservation funders launched the Species Recovery Alliance on October 16 at the COP17 biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia, pledging more than $500 million over five years to recover threatened species, the alliance's announcement says.

Who is in the alliance and what will it fund?

Nine funders, focused on the most threatened species. The founding members are Ayers Wild Cat Conservation Trust, Bezos Earth Fund, Colossal Foundation, Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, Fondation Segré, Franklinia Foundation, Rainforest Trust, Re:wild and WildLives Earth. The announcement says more than 31,000 species are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as extinct in the wild, critically endangered or endangered, and cites research finding that 57% of threatened species need targeted conservation work beyond habitat protection.

The alliance builds on the Phoenix Species Project, a Bezos Earth Fund and Re:wild partnership focused on recovering 100 of the world's most threatened species across 30 countries.

How much is the Bezos Earth Fund giving?

$100 million, a fund spokesperson told Fortune on October 21; the launch announcement did not break out individual pledges. The spokesperson said the fund has granted $2.4 billion since it launched in 2020 with a $10 billion pledge for climate and nature by 2030, which Fortune said leaves more than $7 billion to distribute in about four years. Fortune reported no disbursement timeline for the $100 million, and the other members' shares have not been disclosed.

Members will not pool their money. Each will direct its own grants while coordinating with the others and with local partners, the announcement says, and progress will be measured with the IUCN Red List and the IUCN Green Status of Species. The alliance's money is separate from the Coalition of Action to Recover Endangered Species (CARES), a group of 17 governments led by Colombia and Armenia.

What should donors and grantees watch?

Payments, not pledges. Because the money is not pooled, there is no single fund or application to track; each member decides where its share goes. In our view, a coordinated pledge is only as useful as the reporting behind it, so look for each member's annual figures on what it has actually granted. Cristián Samper, managing director and leader of nature solutions at the Bezos Earth Fund, told Fortune that "sustained public funding is essential to achieving it at scale." Government money is short of its own target: citing OECD data reported by the Associated Press, Fortune said countries raised $75 billion to $92 billion a year from 2023 through 2025 against a pledge of $200 billion a year by 2030.

For a contrast, the Walmart Foundation's grassland money runs through a single fund administered by NFWF with a one-to-one match, and Yellowstone's new stewardship fund shows how a big conservation headline can leave out who pays what.