Leonardo DiCaprio visits Leuser Ecosystem - Supports New Megafuana Sanctuary

Accompanied by fellow actors Adrien Brody and Fisher Stevens, he took a tour of the national park's research facility in Katambe where they met park authorities and visited Sumatran orangutans and closely watched the great apes' behavior. They also visited with local communities and other wildlife including Sumatran elephants.

Leonardo (left) with the Forum Konservation Leuser (FKL) and HaKA teams.

Global Conservation is proud to be a major funder of te Leuser Ecosystem and Gunung Leuser National Park protection, SMART rangers and deployment of the Global Park Defense program. To date, Global Conservation and its partners have invested over $1 million in park protection and conservation for the Leuser UNESCO World Heritage site.

Speaking earlier in Davos Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, DiCaprio said “Generosity is the key to our future. Currently, less than three percent of all philanthropic giving goes to defending our planet. So much can be done if we work together. With your help, we can quickly identify and fund the most innovative and effective projects that have the greatest potential to avert the crisis we face. As I look across the room, I am optimistic that our ability to convene the most significant and influential minds on the planet can result in the global transition necessary to protect both our society and our natural world.”

Fresh off the Oscar podium for his role in The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio came to visit Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra, Indonesia, bringing critical attention to one of the last intact rainforests of Asia, an area highly threatened by palm oil plantations, logging, mining, and unplanned settlements.

In his Oscar speech, he spoke to millions of the dangers and consequences of climate change and deforestation.  

According to DiCaprio's official website, his global environmental foundation is funding HaKA and FKL in Aceh, Sumatra to create a new protected wildlife sanctuary to maintain the forest by constructing barriers, training wildlife patrols and rangers, and recording and reporting ongoing habitat destruction.

The rainforests of Leuser Ecosystem are “considered one of the world’s last  remaining major habitat for the critically endangered Sumatran elephant. These forests provide ancient elephant migratory paths that are still used by some of the last wild herds of Sumatran elephants.”

“But 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, said DiCaprio.”

FKL and HAkA, NGOs based in Aceh, Indonesia, said in a statement that the ecosystem “plays a critical role in helping regulate the Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon pollution and storing massive amounts of carbon in its lowland rainforests and peat lands.”

The statement went on to add that millions of local people depend directly on the Leuser Ecosystem for their livelihoods and that this is the central source of their clean water supply

The rainforests of Leuser Ecosystem are “considered one of the world’s last  remaining major habitat for the critically endangered Sumatran elephant. These forests provide ancient elephant migratory paths that are still used by some of the last wild herds of Sumatran elephants.”

“But 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, said DiCaprio.”

FKL and HAkA, NGOs based in Aceh, Indonesia, said in a statement that the ecosystem “plays a critical role in helping regulate the Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon pollution and storing massive amounts of carbon in its lowland rainforests and peat lands.”

The statement went on to add that millions of local people depend directly on the Leuser Ecosystem for their livelihoods and that this is the central source of their clean water supply.

According to HAkA, the area’s forested watersheds also minimize the “number and severity of environmental disasters in the region, which already kill many people and costs millions of dollars each year.”

A Change.org petition has been launched by activists and is being promoted by DiCaprio to urge Indonesian President Joko Widodo to cancel the spatial plan in the Leuser Ecosystem area.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, established back in 1998, will partner with the Acehnese conservationist Rudi Putra of FKL and HaKA in efforts to build a megafauna sanctuary in the Leuser ecosystem and will be constructing barriers, training wildlife rangers and patrols, and reporting any habitat destruction in the area.

The Leuser Ecosystem covers 6.5 million acres of tropical lowland rainforests, mountains, and peatlands. According to Leonardo DiCaprio, the area is the ‘Last Place on Earth’ where Sumatran tigers, orangutans, rhinos, and elephants coexist in the wild. He fears that without adequate protection, these wildlife species will likely be pushed to extinction.