{"id":629261,"date":"2026-08-09T22:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T22:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/629261\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T22:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T22:54:18","slug":"leo-dicaprio-launches-200m-project-to-bring-100-most-threatened-species-back-from-the-brink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/629261\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo DiCaprio Launches $200M Project to Bring 100 Most Threatened Species Back From the Brink"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-239719\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Phoenix-Species-Project-4-wildlife-species-released.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1400\" height=\"750\"  \/>Photos (top left, clockwise): Golden-crowned sifaka (by Fanamby), fuzzy belly button in bloom (by Chris Rogerson), bowmouth guitarfish (by Mark Erdmann), and Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander (by Todd W. Pierson) \u2013 Phoenix Species Project<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/?s=Leonardo+DiCaprio+\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a>, the Bezos Earth Fund, and nine other conservation philanthropies launched the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, focused on protecting at least 30% of the most important land, freshwater, and marine area on the planet.<\/p>\n<p>In the years since, the Hollywood actor\/director continued discussions about an even more ambitious challenge to protect the most at-risk species\u2014and he and his conservation group, Re:wild (which helps protect hundreds of threatened species in 360 locations worldwide), unveiled that big idea this week.<\/p>\n<p>The Phoenix Species Project.<\/p>\n<p>From rhinos and tigers, to a golden-crowned lemur, nature is full of comeback stories. Species numbered by just a handful of individuals have rebounded, when given the proper resources\u2014and, in the process entire ecosystems have recovered.<\/p>\n<p>The Phoenix Species Project builds on those good news stories.<\/p>\n<p>The effort begins with a $200 million commitment to provide unprecedented support to the recovery of 100 species facing imminent extinction\u2014including mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, plants, and invertebrates from 30 countries.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-239720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Leonardo-DiCaprio-at-2019-Cannes-film-festival-by-Georges-Biard\u2013CC-BY-SA-3-via-wikipedia.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"740\"  \/>Leonardo DiCaprio at 2019 Cannes film festival by Georges Biard (CC BY-SA 3.0 \/ Wikipedia)<\/p>\n<p>The commitment of new money beyond small, short-term grants\u2014$100M from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodnewsnetwork.org\/bezos-earth-fund-pledges-one-billion-to-help-conserve-nature-in-congo-andes-and-pacifc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Bezos Earth Fund<\/a> and $100M from Re:wild\u2014will offer the sustained investment endangered species need to rebound.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we protect species, we also protect the forests, wetlands, grasslands, and oceans they depend on,\u201d said Leonardo DiCaprio, founder of Re:wild.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Phoenix Species Project has the potential to make a lasting impact where it\u2019s needed most.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The full Phoenix 100 list can be found on the project\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/phoenixspeciesproject.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">new website<\/a>, but in addition to the golden-crowned sifaka lemur, a few highlights include these species:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ancient shark-like bowmouth guitarfish<\/strong>, a ray found in shallow ocean waters from South Africa to Japan and Australia, whose fins are among the most prized in the fin trade. [Implementing partner: ReShark]<\/li>\n<li><strong>Honey-scented, daisy-like fuzzy belly button<\/strong>, a tiny desert succulent that is illegally harvested for the ornamental plant trade in western South Africa. [Implementing partner: South African National Biodiversity Institute]<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tree-dwelling Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander<\/strong>, lives only in a small canyon in North Carolina in the United States, and is within the world\u2019s most diverse salamander hotspot, the Appalachian Mountains. [Implementing partner: Amphibian &amp; Reptile Conservancy]<\/li>\n<li><strong>Small, extinct-in-the-wild freshwater Charco Azul pupfish<\/strong>, whose common appearance belies its dramatic history when the freshwater spring it lived in dried up in Mexico after a drought, and years of water extraction for agriculture. [Implementing partner: Universidad Aut\u00f3noma del Estado de Morelos]<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lost-and-found night parrot<\/strong> from Australia\u2019s remote deserts and dry grasslands, which remains elusive because of its nocturnal, ground-dwelling habits. [Implementing partner: Bush Heritage Australia]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A 2021 peer-reviewed essay in Conservation Biology argued that even species reduced to tiny populations can recover with sufficient conservation funding, and committed local partners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis fund is focused squarely on species recovery\u2014not merely stopping decline,\u201d explained Barney Long, a senior director at Re:wild.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecovering species takes time, so the fund is designed to provide sustained, five-years of support for each species, freeing conservationists from disruptive short-term funding cycles and equipping them to do what\u2019s actually required to bring species (fully) back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the tools we need to prevent these species from going extinct,\u201d says the Phoenix Species Project senior manager<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rewild.org\/press\/phoenix-species-project-launch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> in a media release<\/a>. \u201cWe just need to mobilize the resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEND THIS TITANIC NEWS To Nature-Loving Friends on Social Media\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photos (top left, clockwise): Golden-crowned sifaka (by Fanamby), fuzzy belly button in bloom (by Chris Rogerson), bowmouth guitarfish&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[1868,434,3616,18,8459,117,176407,1239,19,17,3122,65],"class_list":["post-629261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-biodiversity","tag-celebrities","tag-conservation","tag-eire","tag-endangered-species","tag-entertainment","tag-generosity","tag-hollywood","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-philanthropy","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117068017136839121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}