Polar bears are listed as a vulnerable species by the World Wildlife Foundation because of various threats including climate change and the wildlife trade. There are roughly 26,000 worldwide. Photo / Bonnie Jo Mount, The Washington Post
The Trump Administration is considering whether to spend up to US$50 million ($87m) in foreign aid to protect polar bears in Greenland and US$25m for snow leopards in Nepal.
The proposals are strikingly at odds with a parallel initiative to slash humanitarian and wildlife programmes deemed incompatible with United States President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Post and people familiar with the matter.
As of mid-September, the State Department was actively assembling teams to devise the funding proposals, internal emails show.
The move, which has not been previously reported or publicly announced, stunned diplomats and elected officials from the US and other nations, as well as scientific researchers who work on conservation efforts for the animals involved, many of whom noted the Administration’s dramatic cuts to other US foreign assistance.
The Greenland initiative is particularly noteworthy, as Trump – citing the Arctic island’s strategic location and rich natural resources – has repeatedly expressed a desire to acquire the semiautonomous territory through purchase or annexation.
Greenland remains part of the Danish realm, and its people have expressed little interest in Trump’s solicitations.
In a statement acknowledging the conversations that are under way, the State Department said that biodiversity funding was being considered only because it was mandated by Congress before Trump returned to the White House.
“This is very hard to justify as in America’s national interest, but because the State Department is complying with applicable laws and unable to reprogramme the FY2024 funding, we are exploring creative ways to abide by the law and still advance our country’s strategic goals,” the statement says, using an abbreviation for the prior financial year.
One aim, the statement continued, was to identify “opportunities to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties with key partners” and advance Trump’s foreign policy goals “even while forced to meet this congressionally mandated earmark”.
The Trump Administration previously has flouted lawmakers’ intent on federal spending.
In August, for instance, the Office of Management and Budget nixed almost US$5 billion in foreign aid already signed into law, a move the Senate Appropriations Committee’s top Republican, Senator Susan Collins (Maine), called “a clear violation of the law”.
Researchers who work on polar bear conservation in Greenland expressed bewilderment over the scale of the funding proposal under consideration, calling it many orders of magnitude greater than their current funding and saying the figure was so vast that it was unclear if it could all be spent. These people, like several others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Trump Administration’s calculations.
The Trump Administration paused most foreign aid after entering office and later made sweeping cuts to programmes that, among other things, provided tens of millions of dollars’ worth of medicine for people in war-torn Sudan and for food aid in crisis areas such as Gaza.
The animal-protection proposals would be funded by the nearly US$2b once administered by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which the Trump Administration dismantled earlier this year.
Trump officials signalled to Congress last month that they planned to shift that lump sum to what in many cases are vaguely defined projects intended to advance the President’s “America First” agenda.
Included among the other new uses for that money, as outlined in a September message from the Administration to Congress, are initiatives aimed at countering “Marxist, anti-American regimes” in Latin America, and helping maintain peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Central Asia.
The congressional notice mentions that some funds will be going to Greenland for “economic development and conservation work” and also mentions Nepal as a recipient of aid. The document does not describe how much would go to those countries or how it would be spent.
Congressional aides who have been briefed on the US$2b reallocation told the Post that they had sought explanation from the Administration given Trump’s vow to annex Greenland.
When informed of the biodiversity proposals being devised, some said they were incredulous to learn the polar bear and snow leopard projects could receive so much money when others, intended to address human suffering, had been defunded.
“After decimating USAid and State Department programmes that Congress authorised and funded, the Trump Administration doesn’t get kudos for continuing a sliver of international conservation aid,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat said in a statement.
She added that she expected “meaningful congressional consultation and oversight when the Administration wants to spend American taxpayer dollars”.
The governments of Denmark, Greenland and Nepal did not respond to requests for comment.
If carried out, the biodiversity funding proposals could dramatically alter such conservation efforts.
The Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, a body that tracks the island’s wildlife, has an annual budget of less than US$500,000 for polar bear research. Most of that money comes from the Danish Government, according to annual reports.
Several State Department staffers said they, too, were shocked to learn the Trump Administration wanted to spend money to protect endangered animals, given its recent record on wildlife conservation.
In April, for example, the Government proposed redefining what it means to “harm” animals under the Endangered Species Act, a move environmentalists warn will lead to greater habitat destruction.
Polar bears and snow leopards are both listed as vulnerable species by the World Wildlife Foundation, because of various threats including climate change and the wildlife trade.
There are roughly 26,000 polar bears worldwide, with around 3000 thought to be in Greenland. The planet has at least 4000 snow leopards, with fewer than 400 living in Nepal.
One State Department employee familiar with the polar bear project said that, internally, it has raised questions because spending on so much else has been slashed. This person said that he and his colleagues estimated it would translate to about US$100,000 per polar bear.
“It’s something [the Office of Foreign Assistance] has been pushing for months,” the employee said. “While everything else is eliminated.”
Another State Department staffer was more blunt, saying: “We are doing absolutely nothing right now to protect any nature or wildlife”.
Other employees noted that the agency’s arm that would normally handle distributing such funds, the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, was hit hard by Trump initiatives to shrink the federal workforce.
Through firings, retirements and resignations, that bureau has seen several offices close, most of its senior leadership depart and roughly half of its staff leave, two employees said.
The emails reviewed by the Post say that the funding is a priority for Jeremy Lewin, a political appointee performing the duties of undersecretary for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom.
Lewin, who had not worked in government before joining the Trump Administration as a member of Elon Musk’s US Doge Service this year, has emerged as a key implementer of Administration policies, including the dismantling of USAid and the reorganisation of the State Department.
The focus on Greenland and Nepal – a country nestled between superpowers India and China that has recently seen a bloody period of political unrest – has led to some alarm among observers.
Trump has suggested that he would consider using military force to take Greenland if the territory is not sold to the US.
Earlier this year, according to previous Post reporting, the White House prepared estimates for how much it would cost to maintain Greenland as a territory, suggesting that the President’s public statements were more than just musings.
In August, Denmark’s Foreign Minister summoned a top US diplomat after reports that Americans with suspected ties to Trump had been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.
Though Trump has spoken less frequently about Greenland in recent months, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told lawmakers this week that they should not “breathe a sigh of relief”.
During the first Trump Administration, the President expressed similar ambitions regarding Greenland. When those overtures were rebuffed, his Administration announced US$10m in USAid funding that was designed for development of key sectors, including mining and tourism.
While Greenland, because of its relationship with Denmark, has not been a major recipient of American foreign aid in the past, Nepal is a developing nation and had previously received numerous grants from USAid and other US institutions, including some specifically for snow leopards.
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