The Bezos Earth Fund has awarded more than $25 million for ocean conservation across five Pacific nations, bringing grants under its broader $100 million Pacific commitment to $63.3 million. The projects aim to support protection and sustainable management across more than 625,000 square miles of ocean. Governments will receive help protecting marine territory and planning how to manage their waters.
National Waters and International Rules
The grants cover the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu. They mark the second round of the Earth Fund’s Unlocking Blue Pacific Prosperity initiative, which aims to help protect at least 30% of the region’s waters by 2030. The fund announced its first round, worth $37.5 million, in 2025.
Papua New Guinea is expected to use funding to create its first large offshore marine protected area. Tonga is expanding protected areas. Other grants support the Cook Islands’ Marae Moana ocean park and habitat protection planning in Kiribati and Vanuatu. Marine protected areas can impose different levels of restriction. The most tightly protected zones can prohibit fishing, mining and other extraction.
The programme also extends beyond 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. That means the announced work includes both national marine planning and proposals tied to a United Nations treaty. The article doesn’t describe a transfer of national authority or specify how governments will make decisions about the funded projects.
Who Is Directing the Funding
Lauren Sánchez Bezos is leading the latest Pacific grant round. She’s been vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund since its early period and became a more prominent figure in the couple’s philanthropic work after marrying Bezos in June 2025. She announced the first round of Pacific grants in 2025.
The Earth Fund said that, after the latest awards, 17 of the Pacific’s 22 countries are working to protect or sustainably manage their waters. 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.
The source describes the programme’s intended conservation and management outcomes but gives no figures on effects on local employment, fishing access or household costs. It also includes no statements from residents who oppose the grants or from nationalist or dissident groups. Governments and conservation projects are the reported beneficiaries; the article doesn’t identify particular employers or other commercial beneficiaries.
The Fund’s Wider Commitments
Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion through the Earth Fund in 2020 for climate and environmental causes, with the money intended for distribution by the end of 2030. The fund has awarded about $2.4 billion, leaving approximately $7.6 billion to distribute, and said it remains committed to that deadline. Bloomberg reported in May that grantmaking rose to at least $400 million during 2026, after falling 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 how to direct its money.
The Pacific grants come amid reported pressure from ocean warming and acidification. A July report from the World Meteorological Organization said these changes were affecting marine ecosystems and local economies. According to the WMO, the region had its second-warmest year on record in 2025. Marine heatwaves disrupted ecosystems and fisheries. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, executive secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said: “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.”
The fund’s wider recent grants include $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 $100 million through a partnership with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Re to support efforts involving threatened species. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index valued Bezos at about $273 billion on October 1, 2026. In a 2022 interview with CNN, he said philanthropy’s hard part was “figuring out how to do it in a levered way.”