- The actor visited Leuser with Adrian Brody and Fisher Stevens.
- DiCaprio is known for his climate change and indigenous peoples advocacy.
- A photo of elephants he posted on Instagram received hundreds of thousands of likes.
Leonardo DiCaprio spent the weekend in Indonesia’s embattled Leuser Ecosystem, toward whose conservation his philanthropic foundation pledged $3.2 million in January.
Located in northwestern Sumatra, Leuser is one of Southeast Asia’s last great swaths of intact rainforest and the only place on earth where the Sumatran rhino, tiger, elephant and orangutan still coexist in the wild. DiCaprio and fellow actors Adrian Brody and Fisher Stevens traveled there with local activists and researchers.
A photo of DiCaprio with elephants on his Instagram page received hundreds of thousands of likes and thousands of comments. “The expansion of Palm Oil plantations is fragmenting the #forest and cutting off key elephant migratory corridors, making it more difficult for elephant families to find adequate sources of food and water,” read the caption.
DiCaprio was honored for his climate change advocacy at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
“Generosity is the key to our future,” DiCaprio said at the event. “Currently, less than three percent of all philanthropic giving goes to defending our planet.”
Indonesian activists and indigenous leaders have filed a lawsuit against the Aceh provincial government’s new spatial plan, which would open Leuser’s forests up to clearing for logs, mining and oil palm.
