US billionairre Jeff Bezos selects Kenya among beneficiaries of Ksh3.3 billion (USD 22.8 million) Donation
Bezos Earth Fund to Donate 3.3 Billion to Kenya Amid Climate Change
Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American business magnate, media proprietor, and investor. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce and cloud computing company.
The Billionaire will give Kenya’s Rift Valley Ksh3.3 billion (USD 22.8 million) funds from the Bezos Earth Fund to help restore 600,000 hectares of land that have been destroyed by climate change.
In a disclosure on Tuesday, Bezos Earth Fund President and CEO Andrew Steer said that the funds will benefit the Rift Valley in Kenya and Lake Kivu and the Rusizi River Basin, on the border of DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi.
“Africa is home to the world’s largest restoration opportunity and is a critical player in the global move against climate change, nature loss and poverty,” Steer stated.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos founded the Bezos Earth Fund to mitigate climate change and protect nature.
Steer while addressing the Africa Climate Summit highlighted that the funding will be used for carbon sequestration (storing carbon in a carbon pool), biodiversity, and human welfare.
In Rift Valley, the funds will enable the restoration of 600,000 hectares of degraded land, as forests and woodlands are considered one of the best forms of natural carbon sequestration. Deforestation, on the other hand, poses the biggest threat to this natural process, as does construction or intensive agriculture.
“With these grants, we are proud to support the next generation of African institutions that are at the heart of the continent’s restoration movement and begin the vital work of leveraging philanthropy into private investment in restoration,” the CEO remarked.
Wanjira Mathai, the Earth Fund’s advisor for Africa and Managing Director at the World Resource Institute, explained that scaling restoration across Africa would be impossible without local leadership, wisdom, and passion.
“Africa is home to some of our planet’s greatest restoration successes, and this funding will support locally-led restoration to re-green our beautiful African continent,” she added.
