Since 1988, we have become one of the largest international sources of funding of biodiversity projects which protect our world’s wide variety of animals, plants and other living things. Even though the loss of biodiversity is an international concern, people who live in rural communities in developing countries feel the greatest effects since they are most dependent on natural resources for food, shelter, medicine, income, employment and their cultural identity. For this reason, we have joined Conservation International, the Global Environment Facility, the MacArthur Foundation and the Japanese government in a fund that contributes to the protection of developing countries’ biodiversity hotspots, which are the Earth’s biologically richest but most threatened places. We have also teamed up with the WWF to create and secure highly threatened protected areas, and certify production forests as sustainable. Concern for the environment is central to our mission to reduce poverty. Our environment strategy focuses on climate change, forests, water resources, pollution management and biodiversity, among others. Currently, projects we fund, that have clear environmental objectives, amount to around US$11 billion.