Andes-Amazon Initiative

Environmental Effort of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

  • Overseas
  • 2000

A signature international effort of the $6 billion Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation is the Andes-Amazon Initiative. The Amazon River basin stretching from the Andes mountains to the south Atlantic holds one fifth of the world’s liquid fresh water. It also contains the globe’s highest diversity of birds and primates, one third of all freshwater fish species, and more than 60,000 plant species. To support this biological trove the Moore Foundation has invested more than $150 million in forest conservation and an additional $70 million in other forms of conservation. Moore’s efforts have helped restore a forested area about four times the size of California, while establishing sustainable business partnerships to mitigate local environmental degradation.