Walt Disney Company Investing $7M in Projects to Protect World’s Forests

Did you know that one of the most effective ways to combat climate change and protect threatened wildlife is to preserve the world’s forests?

That’s why as part of our company commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to protect diverse habitats we’re making a major investment in projects to protect forests in the Amazon, the Congo, the Lower Mississippi River valley and Northern California.

In partnership with leading conservation groups Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund, we’re investing $7 million to support projects that use a variety of strategies including avoided deforestation, reforestation and integrated forest management to get the job done.

These efforts supplement what we are already doing across the company to cut down on fossil fuel use, to switch to cleaner forms of energy and to educate kids and adults alike about being better environmental stewards. (If you don’t yet know about Friends for Change: Project Green or Disney’s Planet Challenge, you better check it out…)

Protecting forests is critical because they are disappearing at an alarming rate. Each year, about 50,000 square miles of forest disappear around the world, equal to the size of Pennsylvania. The burning and clearing of tropical forests is responsible for nearly 20% of the world’s greenhouse gas pollution, or more than all the world’s cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships combined!

If you are interested in learning more, visit our partners’ websites. They are doing some fantastic and innovative work that we are really proud to support.