Multiple countries attending the COP26 climate summit in Scotland’s Glasgow — including the United States and United Kingdom– pledged a sum of $1.7 billion to aid indigenous communities across the globe and enhance the protection of tropical forests in the next four years. 

Other key stakeholders who pitched in their share to the sum were the governments of Germany, Norway and the Netherlands in addition to 17 private funders. 

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According to reports from Associated Press, the sum of $1.7 billion will be focused on supporting “activities to secure, strengthen and protect Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ land and resource rights,” and provide other kinds of aid, including for group activities.

While not specifying which communities would be eligible to receive the funding, which was pledged on Monday, the coalition of the stakeholders said, “We call on other donors to significantly increase their support to this important agenda.”

A spokesperson for The Ford Foundation, one of the funders, told The Associated Press the governments are providing approximately $1 billion, while the rest will come from the philanthropies.

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Apart from the accumulated fund of $1.7 billion, the Bezon Earth Fund, an initiative of former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, vowed to give $2 billion. The amount would be focused on restoring landscapes and reforming the agricultural systems followed around the globe.

After making the pledge, Bezos said in a statement, “Our commitment today supports a three-fold imperative — we must conserve what we have, restore what we have lost, and grow what we need in harmony with nature”, according to reports from Associated Press.

The $2 billion pledge at COP26 is part of $10 billion that the Amazon founder committed earlier this year to spend by 2030 in an effort to battle climate change.