Amazon plans to invest $3 million in nature-based projects in India

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E-commerce company Amazon is planning to invest $3 million in nature-based projects in India. The investment is part of the company's $15 million fund it has allocated for nature-based projects in Asia Pacific (APAC).

“The first USD 3 million from the fund's APAC allocation will support nature-based projects in India," the company said in a statement on Monday. “For its first project, Amazon will be working with the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) to support communities and conservation efforts in the Western Ghats, which is home to more than 30 per cent of all of India’s wildlife species, including the world’s largest population of wild Asiatic elephants and tigers," it added.

As per the statement, Amazon will provide $1 million to help CWS establish the “Wild Carbon" program, which will support 10,000 farmers in planting and maintaining one million fruit-bearing, timber and medicinal trees. “The Asia-Pacific region is home to vast forests and rich coastal environments, but it is also highly vulnerable to climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation," Amazon's global VP for sustainability Kara Hurst said in the statement.

“To protect the region from the impacts of climate change and preserve biodiversity, we will need both large-scale and local action – and we are committed to investing in both," added Hurst. Amazon's $15 million fund for nature-based projects in APAC is part of its $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, which was created in 2019, to support nature conservation and restoration projects that enhance climate resilience and biodiversity.

“Amazon's support enables us to plan and build a program that is self-sustaining in the long-term. The farmers will receive upfront support to select tree types