leonardo dicaprio © Photo: Instagram

Leonardo DiCaprio tackles environmental issues in Indonesia

Lifestyle Features Editor
March 30, 2016

Just a few weeks after using his Oscars speech to touch upon the issue of climate change, Leonardo DiCaprio has travelled to Indonesia to help tackle the problem first hand. The 41-year-old paid a visit to Mont Leuser National Park in Sumatra, to support groups who are working to preserve the area's ecosystem.

Leonardo's charity The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is also helping local groups to "establish a mega fauna sanctuary in the Leuser Ecosystem" – the last place on earth where Sumatran orangutans, tigers, rhinos and elephants coexist in the wild.

© Photo: Instagram

Leonardo DiCaprio visited the Mont Leuser National Park in Sumatra

The actor shared a photo from his trip on Instagram, showing him smiling next to two Sumatran elephants, whose habitat he is determined to protect. He later joined members of the team working within the national park and wrote a passionate plea for people to help to save the Leuser Ecosystem.

Leonardo is a dedicated environmentalist, and donated £9.5million to charity on behalf of The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 2015. The funds were donated to various environmental projects around the globe, including World Wildlife Fund, Oceans 5, Save the Elephants and National Geographic: Pristine Seas.

He also touched upon environmental issues during his acceptance speech after winning the Best Actor award at the Oscars in February, noting how it had affected filming for his film The Revenant.

© Photo: Instagram

Leonardo is a dedicated environmentalist and is vocal about climate change issues

"Making The Revenant was about man's relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history," Leonardo said. "Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now."

He continued: "It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating."

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