The Bezos Earth Fund announced more than $25 million in new ocean conservation grants across five Pacific nations, bringing awards under its wider $100 million Pacific commitment to $63.3 million. The money is meant to help governments protect marine territory and plan for the longer-term management of their waters. A billionaire’s philanthropic fund now plays a major role in financing how those waters may be protected.
The grants cover the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu. Together, the projects aim to support protection and sustainable management across more than 625,000 square miles of ocean.
Who Sets the Terms
The new awards form the second round of the Earth Fund’s $100 million Pacific pledge, called Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity. Its goal is to help protect at least 30% of the region’s waters by 2030. The fund announced the first round, worth $37.5 million, in 2025.
Papua New Guinea expects to use funding to create its first large offshore marine protected area, while Tonga is expanding protected areas. Other support will go to the Cook Islands’ Marae Moana ocean park and habitat protection planning in Kiribati and Vanuatu. The most tightly protected marine zones can prohibit fishing, mining and other extraction; protected areas can also have less restrictive rules.
Governments and conservation organisations receive the fund’s grants. The article describes no community-led decision-making or direct action attached to these awards. Instead, the programme directs private wealth into government plans for managing national waters. A grant to conservation organisation Rare aims to help governments develop some of the first proposals to protect biodiversity in international waters under the UN High Seas Treaty, which took effect in January.
Pressure on Food and Livelihoods
Ocean warming and acidification are putting growing pressure on the South-West Pacific. A July report from the World Meteorological Organization said the changes were affecting marine ecosystems and local economies. The region recorded its second-warmest year in 2025, according to the WMO, while marine heatwaves disrupted ecosystems and fisheries.
“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, said. “Early warning and early action save lives when alerts are timely, messages are trusted and last-mile delivery reaches the vulnerable.” The reported consequences extend beyond ecosystems: food systems, infrastructure, public health and livelihoods face exposure too.
After the latest awards, 17 of the Pacific’s 22 countries are working to protect or sustainably manage their waters, the Earth Fund said. French Polynesia, an earlier recipient, established what the fund described as the world’s largest network of fully protected marine areas earlier this year. That network covers almost 625,000 square miles. Niue has protected 40% of its national waters.
A $10 Billion Pledge, Distributed by One Fund
Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion through the Earth Fund in 2020 for climate and environmental causes, with plans to distribute the money by the end of 2030. Six years later, the fund has awarded about $2.4 billion, leaving approximately $7.6 billion to distribute. The organisation says it remains committed to the 2030 deadline.
Bloomberg reported in May that grantmaking climbed to at least $400 million during 2026, after dropping to $183 million in 2025. Kelly Levin, the organisation’s chief of science, data and systems change, said the fund takes time to understand an area before deciding where to direct its money. Lauren Sánchez Bezos leads the latest Pacific grant round; she has served as vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund since its early period and announced the first round of Pacific grants in 2025.
The Pacific grants form part of a broader burst of funding. Since April, the organisation has announced $34 million for more sustainable fabrics, $26 million for wildfire detection and prevention, and $100 million for projects to turn vacant urban land into parks across eight U.S. cities. It also committed another $100 million through a partnership with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re to support efforts involving some of the world’s most threatened species.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index valued Bezos at about $273 billion on October 1, 2026, placing him third in its ranking at the time of the report. In a 2022 interview with CNN, he described philanthropy as difficult: “The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way.” He added, “It’s not easy. Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, hard-working teammates, and I’m finding — and I think Lauren is finding the same thing — that charity, philanthropy, is very similar.” The waters are vast; for now, the fund holds the purse strings.