COP26
THE PLEDGE When their time comes, many of the richest people on Earth have committed to giving away the bulk of their fortunes. Education, poverty and the arts have traditionally benefited from philanthropy, attracting billions for important causes. But increasingly, nature and the climate crisis have become a focus of giving.
Last week, a group of nine philanthropic foundations made the largest ever donation to nature conservation, pledging $5bn to finance the protection of 30% of land and sea by the end of the decade. Swiss businessman Hansjörg Wyss, also a major donor to progressive causes in the US, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos were among the billionaires behind the Protecting our Planet challenge. In effect, the money covers the estimated cost of the 30% goal for this decade, one of the 21 targets included in the draft Paris-style UN agreement for nature currently being negotiated. It also includes plans to eliminate plastics pollution and reduce pesticide use to slow species extinctions. “We can solve the crisis facing nature,” Wyss said at the launch. “But it’s going to take the wealthiest nations and the wealthiest individuals committing to reinvest our enormous bounties here on Earth, safeguarding nature and protecting our lands, waters and wildlife.” Despite high-profile examples, environmental philanthropy remains dwarfed by other areas, accounting for only about 8% of giving, according to the NGO Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Contributions explicitly to conservation and to protect biodiversity have been even more neglected. But there are signs that this is changing.
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Before his death in 2015, The North Face co-founder Douglas Tompkins bought enormous areas of Patagonia and his widow Kris continues their conservation work, helping to create in Chile one of the largest protected areas in the world. Danish billionaires Anders and Anne Holch Povlsen, Scotland’s largest landowners, plan to rewild vast areas of the Highlands. And the growing urgency of scientific warnings over the twin climate and nature crises have meant more are following in their footsteps. “None of us can do everything but everyone must do something,” says Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, worth an estimated $10bn, who created and funds the World Economic Forum’s trillion tree initiative to plant and restore forests around the world. “That is why so many new initiatives are being created and also why I am aggressively funding 1t.org.” When they announced the $5bn for the 30x30 target, the foundations emphasised the importance of rights-based conservation and indigenous communities. New indigenous-led protected areas in Canada will be created in the James
Bay, Hudson Bay and Labrador Sea regions, home to beluga whales, polar bears and walruses. Through his Earth Fund, Bezos said he would initially focus on high-impact projects in the tropical Andes, the Congo Basin and the Pacific Ocean in regions that have already demonstrated a commitment to protecting human rights. How money is spent and the focus of the philanthropy can be controversial. But Basile van Havre, the UN diplomat responsible for drafting the agreement on nature for this decade, which will be at the heart of the Cop15 UN biodiversity talks in Kunming, says philanthropic donations allow governments to focus
❛❛ Despite high-profile examples,
environmental philanthropy remains dwarfed by other areas, accounting for only about 8% of all giving ❜❜
