Overview
Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is directing more money toward Pacific ocean conservation, with the Bezos Earth Fund announcing over $25mn in new grants across five island nations. The funding will support marine protection and long-term management programs in the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The latest awards form the second round of the Earth Fund’s $100mn Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity commitment. They bring total funding under the program to $63.3mn after an initial $37.5mn round announced in 2025.
Bezos pledged $10bn through the Earth Fund in 2020, with the money intended to be distributed by the end of 2030. Nearly seven years later, the fund has awarded about $2.4bn, leaving roughly $7.6bn to deploy during the remaining years of the commitment.
Bezos Earth Fund directs more than $25mn to Pacific nations
The new grants are intended to support protection and sustainable management across more than 625,000 square miles of ocean. The wider Pacific program aims to help protect at least 30% of the region’s waters by 2030.
Papua New Guinea plans to use funding toward creating its first large offshore marine protected area, while Tonga is expanding existing protected areas. Grants will also support the Cook Islands’ Marae Moana ocean park and habitat protection planning in Kiribati and Vanuatu.
Marine protected areas operate under different rules depending on their designation. In the most restrictive zones, fishing, mining and other forms of extraction are prohibited.
The Earth Fund said 17 of the Pacific’s 22 countries are now working on protecting or sustainably managing their waters. French Polynesia, which received support in an earlier round, established what the fund described as the world’s largest network of fully protected marine areas earlier this year, covering almost 625,000 square miles. Niue has protected 40% of its national waters.
Lauren Sánchez Bezos takes larger role in conservation grants
Lauren Sánchez Bezos is leading the latest Pacific grant round. She has served as vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund since its early years and has taken a more visible role in the couple’s philanthropic work since marrying Bezos in June 2025.
She also announced the first round of Pacific grants last year. Around the same period, the Earth Fund awarded $30mn through its AI Grand Challenge for environmental applications, including technology designed to identify plant species and analyze the songs of endangered birds.
The Pacific effort also extends beyond national waters. A grant to conservation organization Rare will help governments prepare proposals for biodiversity protection in international waters under the UN High Seas Treaty, which took effect in January.
Pacific funding comes amid rising ocean pressure
The new grants arrive as the South-West Pacific faces growing pressure from warmer and more acidic oceans. A July report from the World Meteorological Organization said these changes were affecting marine ecosystems, fisheries and local economies.
The region recorded its second-warmest year in 2025, according to the WMO, while marine heatwaves disrupted ecosystems and fisheries. The organization also pointed to wider effects on food systems, infrastructure, public health and livelihoods.
Across Asia and the Pacific, heat is intensifying multi-hazard risks, intersecting with food systems, public health, infrastructure and oceans, and placing new pressures on health and livelihoods.
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
She added that early warning and early action save lives when alerts arrive on time, people trust the messages and information reaches vulnerable communities.
Bezos Earth Fund still has $7.6bn to distribute
The Pacific grants are part of a broader run of funding announcements from the Bezos Earth Fund. Since April, the organization has announced $34mn for more sustainable fabrics, $26mn for wildfire detection and prevention, and $100mn for projects converting vacant urban land into parks across eight U.S. cities.
Another $100mn has been committed through a partnership with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re for programs involving threatened species. The Earth Fund has said it remains committed to distributing Bezos’ original $10bn pledge by the end of 2030.
Grantmaking increased during 2026 after falling to $183mn in 2025. Bloomberg reported in May that awards had risen to at least $400mn this year.
Kelly Levin, the Earth Fund’s chief of science, data and systems change, has said the organization spends time studying individual areas before deciding how to allocate funding. That approach leaves the fund with a large amount still to distribute before its 2030 deadline.
Bezos compares philanthropy with building Amazon
The remaining Earth Fund commitment is small relative to Bezos’ personal wealth. Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index valued his fortune at about $273bn on Oct. 1, 2026, placing him third on the ranking at the time.
Bezos has previously discussed the difficulty of deploying large amounts of money through philanthropy. In a 2022 CNN interview, he said the difficult part was finding ways to make donations produce broader results.
With about $2.4bn awarded so far, the Bezos Earth Fund still has approximately $7.6bn left under the original pledge. The latest Pacific grants add another group of conservation projects as the organization works toward the 2030 deadline.
