Bezos-backed $200M species project faces greenwashing scrutiny
Despite controversy over its source, grassroots groups say the funding can help species recover
A new $200-million US initiative backed by the Bezos Earth Fund and Leonardo DiCaprio's Re:wild promises to help recover 100 threatened species, including pink iguanas, lemurs, wild pigs and pangolins.
The Phoenix Species Project could provide sustained funding for breeding programs, habitat restoration and locally led conservation work. But it also raises a broader question: Can billionaire-backed philanthropy help the environment, while improving donors' green image, despite the environmental records of the businesses that made them rich?
The question is becoming more urgent as governments pull back from climate and biodiversity commitments, leaving private funders to fill in the gaps.
Is it greenwashing?
The Bezos Earth Fund has committed $100 million US to the project. Re:wild and other partners will provide the rest.
The fund was founded by Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and executive chair. Amazon has faced criticism over plastic pollution, deforestation and excessive water use by its data centres.
Wren Montgomery, a researcher with the Greenwash Action Lab and a sustainability professor at Queen's University's Smith School of Business, defines greenwashing as companies "giving an overly positive impression" of an organization's environmental record.
After reviewing the project's website, she raised concerns about selective disclosure — highlighting positive work while distracting from harmful activities elsewhere.
"They may actually be doing the good thing, but we like to think on balance," Montgomery said.
"Even if it's credible and they're doing it, but they're hiding a lot of bad stuff, then we'd still think of it as greenwashing."
She called Bezos's contribution "a very, very small drop in the bucket" compared with Amazon's environmental impact and "nowhere close to balancing the harm he's doing to the planet in other ways."
Montgomery's larger concern is that philanthropy can distract from the need for governments and corporations to address biodiversity loss and climate change.
"We cannot be expecting a few philanthropists, a few billionaires to donate a little bit of money here and there and then do what they want in terms of data centres, other types of environmental destruction, fossil fuel emissions."
The Bezos Earth Fund declined to answer CBC News's questions about greenwashing. Instead, it provided an emailed statement from Cristián Samper, its managing director and leader for nature solutions.
Samper said the species were selected based on whether local partners were ready to carry out recovery work.
"For many species on the brink, the science and local leadership are already in place, what is missing is the sustained funding to put recovery plans into action," the statement said.
Samper said the initiative is part of the fund's $10-billion US commitment to climate and biodiversity crises. The fund said progress, setbacks and lessons will be published through an online dashboard.
'The actual impact'
Montreal entrepreneur and environmentalist Dax Dasilva is one of the projects partners.
Dasilva founded the environmental non-profit Age of Union in 2021 with a $40-million investment in protecting ecosystems and species. It partnered with Re:wild in 2025.
During a trip to Madagascar with Re:wild, Dasilva saw species found nowhere else, including indri and golden-crowned sifaka lemurs.
"People can question motivations but they're not going to be able to question the actual impact here and the actual work because it's going to be transformational," Dasilva said.
"Now is not the time to be giving up."
He said much conservation work has been carried out on small grassroots budgets, with grants of $5,000 US sometimes growing into fully developed local programs.
The Phoenix funding will support habitat restoration, disease management, conservation breeding and invasive species control, he said.
Meaningful, but limited
Chris Johnson, a University of Northern British Columbia professor who studies the conservation and ecology of large terrestrial mammals, is not involved with the project but hopes it will bring more attention to the global biodiversity crisis.
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"I welcome any opportunity from any sector, any group, any person that's genuinely interested, dedicated and willing to put resources to the conservation of biological diversity," Johnson said.
He noted that the project's 100 species represent only a fraction of the 49,000 on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
But Johnson said the initiative includes more than the cute and charismatic animals most likely to attract publicity.
Private funding can move quickly and support local work that governments or traditional donors overlook. But critics say it cannot replace environmental regulation, habitat protections, sustained public funding or corporate accountability.
Montgomery said the project could be an attempt to "confuse and distract from the impact of data centres on the environment."
The donors' motivations may remain open to debate. The results — whether species recover, habitats improve and local groups receive sustained support — should be easier to measure.
With files from Mitchell Fox
