Bezos Earth Fund Backs Amazon.ia, a New AI Biodiversity Monitoring Network for the Amazon
Amazon.ia, backed by over $14 million from the Bezos Earth Fund, combines satellites, camera traps, eDNA and AI to track Amazon biodiversity in real time.
Photo by Miguel Cuenca on Pexels
The Andes Amazon Fund and the World Resources Institute launched “Amazon.ia – Inteligencia Ambiental” on September 23, 2026, an AI biodiversity monitoring Amazon initiative funded with more than $14 million from the Bezos Earth Fund. The network combines satellite imagery, camera traps, bioacoustic recorders, environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling and autonomous sensors, processed with artificial intelligence, to track ecosystem change across the Amazon basin, according to the Andes Amazon Fund’s launch announcement. The initiative was announced during New York Climate Week; satellite imaging partner Planet, whose press release carries a San Francisco dateline reflecting its headquarters, confirmed its role in a companion statement distributed the same week.
Amazon.ia draws on 26 named partner organizations spanning universities, conservation groups and technology companies, including Planet, Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, MIT, Cornell University, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Smithsonian ForestGEO, the World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society-Bolivia, and regional research institutions such as Brazil’s INPA, Colombia’s Instituto Humboldt, Bolivia’s Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, and Peru’s Conservación Amazónica (ACCA), per the Andes Amazon Fund release.
AI biodiversity monitoring Amazon coverage and technology
The network covers Amazon basin territory in Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, according to the Andes Amazon Fund and StockTitan’s coverage of the launch (UPI’s report named the first four countries but did not mention Peru). One flagship monitoring site is the Los Amigos conservation concession in southern Peru, a 146,000-hectare protected area, the Andes Amazon Fund said. The stated goal is to generate near-real-time “change alerts,” ecosystem-condition data and evidence of protected-area effectiveness and ecosystem recovery, to support conservation and restoration decisions by scientists, governments and local communities.
| Detail | Figure |
|---|---|
| Program name | Amazon.ia – Inteligencia Ambiental |
| Funder | Bezos Earth Fund |
| Funding amount | More than $14 million |
| Lead grantees | Andes Amazon Fund; World Resources Institute |
| Launch date | September 23, 2026 |
| Countries covered | Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru |
| Named partner organizations | 26 |
| Flagship monitoring site | Los Amigos conservation concession, Peru (146,000 hectares) |
Source: Andes Amazon Fund and Planet (BusinessWire) launch announcements, September 23, 2026.
Purpose and partner network
The Andes Amazon Fund and World Resources Institute are the lead grantees managing the initiative, with the Bezos Earth Fund named as founding funder in both the Andes Amazon Fund and Planet announcements. Neither release broke down how the $14 million-plus grant is split between the two lead grantees. Beyond the anchor partners, the 26-member network includes Arizona State University, George Mason University, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, University of Guelph, the International Barcode of Life initiative, Wildlife Insights, WildMon, the Tiputini Biodiversity Station, and ALFA, according to the Andes Amazon Fund’s partner list.
Amazon.ia extends a wider trend of AI applied to biodiversity science that Winss Solutions has tracked, including an Oxford-led review finding that satellites advance biodiversity monitoring while key gaps remain and an NC State study on the uses and limits of AI-generated images for species conservation. It also follows other AI-for-environment funding efforts such as Google DeepMind’s selection of 16 environmental AI projects for its first APAC accelerator.
Background
The Bezos Earth Fund is a $10 billion philanthropic commitment established by Jeff Bezos in 2020 to fund climate and nature initiatives, including grants to conservation, science and environmental-justice organizations. The Andes Amazon Fund is a nonprofit that has funded Amazon conservation and Indigenous land-rights work across the Andes-Amazon region since 2007. The World Resources Institute is a Washington, D.C.-based research organization working on environmental and natural-resource policy worldwide. Planet, a satellite-imaging company that supplies daily Earth-observation data to researchers and governments, is one of Amazon.ia’s technology partners. The Amazon.ia launch adds a dedicated biodiversity-intelligence layer to that existing base of satellite and research infrastructure across the Amazon basin.
Sources: Andes Amazon Fund; Planet (BusinessWire); UPI
Featured image: photo by Miguel Cuenca on Pexels (free Pexels license).
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
