Leonardo DiCaprio is continuing his yearslong environmental efforts, this time ahead of the COP30 global climate summit in Brazil.
The Academy Award-winning actor, 50, advocated for environmental caution in a clip ahead of the Conference of the Parties that was posted to his Instagram page, along with that of the Austin-based environmental nonprofit Re:wild on Tuesday.
The Titanic star in the clip urged political and business leaders to be mindful when it comes to taking care of our environment.
‘This week, world leaders gather in Brazil for the first global climate summit held in the heart of the rainforest,’ the A-lister said. ‘Brazil is home to 60% of the Amazon, the lungs of the earth, and one of the planet’s vital life support systems.
‘Yet this irreplaceable ecosystems – like many others – is in peril.’
The Los Angeles native said that ‘in the past four decades, 95 percent of the Amazon deforestation was driven by animal agriculture, cutting and burning ancient forests for pasture and feed.’
DiCaprio said the industry-fueled ‘destruction fuels droughts and illegal fires, accelerating a dangerous cycle that affects the entire planet and all who inhabit it.’
DiCaprio, whose credits include The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street and Don’t Look Up, said that in his ‘lifetime alone, [humans have] lost over 400 million acres of forest and 70 percent of wildlife populations.’
DiCaprio said that world leaders need to look back and see the value of preserving the environment for future generations.
‘Throughout history, when people destroy nature, civilizations collapse,’ DiCaprio said. ‘We know this historically – but those communities who live in balance with nature are the ones that endure.
‘And nowhere is this more evident than in the Indigenous peoples and local communities who conserve and protect these vast ecosystems.’
DiCaprio said that ‘they show us that we must shift from an extractive relationship with the nature to a protective and restorative form.’
DiCaprio said that ‘since 2021, the Forest Tenure Funders Group has mobilized $1.7 billion to support them.
‘The protecting our planet challenge, which Re-wild is honored to be a part of, has provided $500 million of these funds and will renew our pledge for another $500 million over the next five years.
DiCaprio said that ‘leaders meeting in Brazil right now have the unprecedented opportunity to back nature’s most effective guardians.’
DiCaprio said they could do so through ‘policies and funding from the United for Wildlife Global Summit to the United Nations Climate Convention, to all the nations following Brazil’s initial investment of the first billion dollars to the Tropical Forest’s Forever facility.’
DiCaprio said it was essential to ‘learn from our Indigenous partners that nature is our most powerful solution to the crisis facing climate, biodiversity, and human wellbeing.’
DiCaprio wrapped up his statement in urging ‘world leaders to unite and meet this moment with courage, ambition, and bold action,’ adding that ‘our future depends on it.’
DiCaprio serves as a founding board member for Re:wild and has past been honored for his environmental-geared activism by the World Economic Forum.
