The following statement was released today by WCS President and CEO Cristián Samper upon the announcement of the new groundbreaking “Protecting Our Planet Challenge” and its $5 billion commitment toward protecting and conserving 30 percent of the planet by 2030

Nine organizations have joined together to pledge $5 billion over the next 10 years to support the creation, expansion, management and monitoring of protected and conserved areas of land, inland water and sea, working with Indigenous Peoples, local communities, civil society and governments. This marks the largest private funding commitment ever to biodiversity conservation.

The European Union will support WCS’s Five Great Forests initiative, a successful collaboration to protect Mesoamerica’s five largest forests—the last remaining intact forests from Mexico to Colombia critical to the region’s people, culture, biodiversity, economic health, and resilience to climate change.