Leonardo DiCaprio Paired With This Unlikely & Controversial Figure to Launch a $200 Million Fund
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It seems Leonardo DiCaprio just teamed up with an unlikely ally to save the environment. Now, it’s no secret that the Titanic star has been working to raise money and awareness for different environmental causes, but this new team-up has come as quite a shock for many fans.
The Protecting Our Planet (POP) Challenge was announced Friday, and it’s supposed to be a major game-changer for protecting the Amazon rainforest. As a part of the coalition, DiCaprio’s Re:wild conservation nonprofit and Jeff Bezos’ Nature Solutions of the Bezos Earth Fund will be playing a major role. Along with that, multiple other nonprofits will be investing $200 million to protect Brazil’s Indigenous territories.
The Oscar-winning actor shared a statement to his Instagram with the caption reading, “The Protecting Our Planet Challenge, which includes my organization @Rewild, this week announced plans in partnership with the Brazilian government to invest $200 million in the Amazon over the next four years to support the expansion and management of protected areas and Indigenous territories.”
“We are honored to help support Brazil’s ambitious and critical goals of achieving zero deforestation in the Amazon and accelerating the country’s transition to a sustainable and green economy,” he added. “We call on additional philanthropists to join the new commitment to protect and restore Amazonia in Brazil and beyond. Amazonia is also critically important to Indigenous peoples from up to 400 Indigenous groups that speak hundreds of languages, represent irreplaceable cultural diversity and depend on natural ecosystems and resources for their livelihoods and cultures.”
You can see the full statement HERE!
The major figures will be working closely with the Brazilian government to safeguard 145 million acres by eliminating deforestation.
DiCaprio’s nonprofit Re:wild launched in 2021 as a merger between the efforts of the Revenant actor and Global Wildlife Conservation, per their website. Bezos’ Earth Fund was created in 2020 and since then, the nonprofit has donated millions of dollars to conservation efforts.
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