Leonardo DiCapriois using his newly minted environmental organization to set up a $5 million fund for the Amazon’s indigenous communities as fires continue toburn the rainforest at a record level.
Through Earth Alliance — which DiCaprio, Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth launched in July — theAmazon Forest Fundwill provide money to local organizations working tirelessly to protect the Amazon andsurvive amid the massive blazes.
“Yesterday, we launched the Amazon Forest Fund, the first initiative from the newly formed@EarthAlliance,”DiCaprio announced on Instagramearly Monday. “The fund was set up to help local partners and the indigenous communities on the front lines protecting the Amazon.”
Fires have been raging at a record rate in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest for weeks, threatening wildlife and Earth’s oxygen in a disaster that activists say could drive further climate change. The Amazon, known as “the planet’s lungs,” produces 20 percent of Earth’s oxygen and is a key factor in combating climate change,CNN notes.
There have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year (with more than half in its Amazon region), and satellite images have spotted 9,507 new forest fires in the county — mostly in the Amazon basin — since Thursday, according to CNN andReuters, both citing Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
Alliance officials announced on the organization’s social mediathat the money is intended to “focus critical resources for indigenous communities and other local partners working to protect the life-sustaining biodiversity of the Amazon.”
“We are deeply concerned about the ongoing crisis in the Amazon, which highlights the delicate balance of climate, biodiversity, and the wellbeing of indigenous peoples,” officials said.
The Amazon is the world’s largest tropical forest, and the fires this year represent an 83 percent increase over the same period of 2018, Reuters reported.
Several environmentalists have said cattle ranchers and farmers intentionally set the fires to clear the land for their own use.
Corpo de Bombeiros de Mato Grosso/AP/Shutterstock; Inset: Masatoshi Okauchi/Shutterstock
Amazon rainforest on fire.STR/AFP/Getty
INPE researchers have made similar statements.
Amid these claims, many have condemned Brazil’sright-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who vowed to explore the Amazon’s economic potential and condemned deforestation warnings that could interfere with trade negotiations. Activists have also noted that the surge of fires began when he took office in January, Reuters reported.
Bolsonaro famously fired INPE leader Ricardo Galvão after Galvão spoke out about high deforestation rates. Bolsonaro said then that the findings were inaccurate, and the president appears to be taking a similar stance in the wake of news of the fires.
“I am waiting for the next set of numbers, that will not be made up numbers. If they are alarming, I will take notice of them in front of you,” he told reporters last week, according to Reuters.
Amid the mounting international pressure, Bolsonaro signaled on Friday that he was considering sending the country’s army to fight the fires,NPRreported. Over the weekend, the Brazilian military deployed troops to the fire zone and started releasing water from planes to combat the fires in the state of Rondonia, theAssociated Pressreported on Monday.
Concerned citizens, activists and celebrities alike have worked to draw national attention to the disaster. Along with DiCaprio,Gisele Bündchen,Jaden Smith,Madonnaand more are shining a light on the impact the record-breaking Amazon rainforest fires have on the world.
“The forest plays a key role inbalancing the Earth’s climateand consequently in our lives,” Bündchen, 39,wrote on Instagram. “We cannot close our eyes to what is happening in the Amazon.”
Madonna, 61,wrote on Instagram: “The Fires Are Raging and The Amazonia continues to burn………This is a devastation to Brazil—to the indigenous people who live there and the plant and animal species that make this the most important bio-diverse Forest!!!”
source: people.com
