Leonardo DiCaprio’s conservation organization Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund have launched the Phoenix Species Project, a $200 million initiative aimed at recovering 100 species facing imminent extinction across 30 countries. The commitment makes it, according to the organizations, the largest single philanthropic initiative in history dedicated exclusively to recovering critically endangered species.
The “Phoenix 100” spans mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and plants living in habitats ranging from oceans and freshwater lakes to tropical rainforests and volcanic plains. Of the $200 million commitment, $100 million comes from the Bezos Earth Fund, with the other $100 million from Re:wild, backed by additional support from DiCaprio, Age of Union and the Todd Graves Family Foundation. Funding will go toward habitat restoration, breeding programs, disease management and species reintroduction, with the project working alongside Indigenous Peoples, local communities, scientists and conservationists, and in partnership with the IUCN Species Survival Commission as global knowledge partner.
The project has roots going back to 2021, when DiCaprio and Re:wild co-founder Dr. Wes Sechrest met with Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, now vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, to discuss dramatically increasing investment in species recovery. “Kids fall in love with animals before anyone tells them those animals are disappearing,” Sánchez Bezos said in a statement, citing the night parrot and the golden-crowned sifaka as examples of species most people have never heard of. Tiana Andriamanana, executive director of Association Fanamby, one of the groups receiving a grant, said the funding and technical support “change what is possible” after years of protecting the sifaka on a fraction of the budget it deserved.
The launch comes just weeks after the Trump administration announced a rollback of protections under the Endangered Species Act, under which potential economic and national security costs will now be weighed against designating an area as critical habitat for an endangered species — a shift that has drawn criticism from conservation groups, though the Phoenix Species Project itself operates independently of federal policy.