Walt Disney Co., enviro groups to fund $7M conservation efforts
Posted on November 5th, 2009
ClimateWire: The Walt Disney Co. and several conservation groups will put up $7 million to protect thousands of acres of forestlands in the Congo and Amazon basins and in two U.S. regions, Disney announced on Tuesday.
Four million dollars will go toward forest protection projects on reserves in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and in Peru. Two million dollars will go to tree planting in the lower Mississippi Valley, and $1 million for the Conservation Fund’s forest protection project along California’s North Coast.
The Disney investment “represents the largest single corporate contribution ever made to reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions from deforestation,” says Peter Seligmann, chairman of Conservation International.
The Nature Conservancy plans to plant trees in 2,000 acres of former forestland in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. The move will help restore native hardwood forestland and expand the habitat for birds and animals in that region.
Work in the Congo will prevent more than 3 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere over 20 years, and the Peru efforts will prevent the release of 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide over its five-year life, according to Conservation International.
Disney’s move is part of a larger company initiative to eventually become carbon-neutral (H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press, Nov. 3). – DFM