Amazon announced a new pledge Tuesday of $10 million to forestry conservation efforts across the Appalachians and other U.S. regions. This is a part of the company’s larger initiative to be a net zero carbon producer by 2040.
The grant will go toward supporting “sustainable forestry, wildlife and nature-based solutions across the Appalachian Mountains,” the company wrote in a press release. Amazon is working in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.
The funds are specifically intended for projects in Pennsylvania and Vermont that aid family forest owners in isolating carbon emissions and expanding climate-resilient forests that have been identified as most-able to thrive amidst climate change. Per the company statement, the funding will help expand conservation efforts across 4 million acres of the 2,000-mile Appalachian region.
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This is Amazon’s first project under its Right Now Climate Fund, an initiative to remove carbon from the atmosphere through conservation efforts around the world.
“These projects will conserve forests and wildlife for future generations – and the planet – and help remove carbon from the atmosphere,” said Kara Hurst, vice president of sustainability at Amazon.
In addition to environmental conservancy, the donation is also expected to generate more economic opportunities for family forest owners and rural communities. The initiative will tap into the carbon storage of potential forests that can absorb carbon from the atmosphere.
“Family forest owners are a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to tackling climate change,” Lynn Scarlett, the chief external affairs officer of The Nature Conservancy, said in the statement.
“This funding from Amazon will, for the first time, allow small-scale forest landowners to tap into the economic opportunity linked to the carbon sequestration and storage potential of U.S. forests,” Scarlett added.
Ultimately, this could amount to a 18.5 million metric ton reduction of carbon in the atmosphere by 2031.
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