Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas

Mitsubishi International Corporation Foundation Announces $293,000 in Grant Awards

December 2, 2003

NEW YORK, NY – The Mitsubishi International Corporation Foundation today announced it has awarded $293,000 in grants to 12 organizations for projects this upcoming year. The MIC Foundation seeks to promote environmental causes in the broadest sense of the term, which encompasses both the physical and social environments in which we live. In furtherance of our mission, we support a wide range of environmental programs that promote conservation, biodiversity, and protection of the natural environment, with a special emphasis on environmental education programs that target underprivileged youth, as well as programs that promote poverty alleviation through microenterprise development and stakeholder consultation as an effective process for safeguarding the environment. The Foundation carries out its mission primarily by supporting programs throughout the Americas.

The major 2003 grants approved include:

$500,000 commitment to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to fund WCS’s Riverwalk conservation project along the Bronx River next to the Bronx Zoo.

$60,000 grant to Earth Pledge Foundation for its Waste = Fuel Initiative to build three small-scale anaerobic digesters at two high schools and one community housing facility in New York City,

and a $25,000 grant to Forest Trends for the Forest Climate Alliance–a coalition of rural development and conservation leaders who are seeking to ensure that climate projects financed by industrialized countries for carbon emissions offsets from afforestation and reforestation projects contribute as well to meeting the Millennium Development Goals to reduce hunger and poverty and conserve biodiversity.

In addition, smaller grants have been approved for:

MITSUBISHI INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION FOUNDATION GRANT AWARDS

The Mitsubishi International Corporation Foundation, based in New York City, was established in 1992 with funding from Mitsubishi International Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan, its parent company. With a current endowment of over $4 million, the Foundation has contributed more than $2 million to organizations supporting environmental education and civil society.