Leonardo DiCaprio Reveals His $5 Million Plan to Save the Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon is on fire, and the damage seems insurmountable. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and think things are just too severe to make a difference, but there’s always something we can do to make a terrible situation easier to handle.

With his latest Instagram post, Leonardo DiCaprio proved just that, announcing a major initiative funding millions of dollars to support the Amazon forest

“The largest rainforest in the world is a critical piece of the global climate solution,” DiCaprio said. “Without the Amazon, we cannot keep the Earth’s warming in check.”

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Earth Alliance, which is backed by DiCaprio, announced over the weekend a plan to donate $5 million toward the preservation of the Amazon rainforest.

This is just the latest in a long line of environmental activism on DiCaprio's part

The Oscar-winner has been raising funds for environmental protection since he made it big in Titanic, 25 years ago. He's also produced two documents, The 11th Hour and Before the Flood, to bring awareness to global warming.

Right now, the Amazon Forest Fund is trying to support local partners and indigenous communities as they work to save the Amazon from both flames and development.

The funds will be donated to five local organizations: Instituto Associacao Floresta Protegida (Kayapo), Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), Instituto Kabu (Kayapo), Instituto Raoni (Kayapo) and Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

Things are pretty dire right now. In fact, according to Earth Alliance’s website, over 72,000 fires have been reported by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) so far. The blaze in the Amazon is finally receiving international attention, with the G7 climate summit resulting in a $20 million commitment to funding conversavation efforts.

DiCaprio also made a point of praising the firefighters working on the ground in Brazil to combat these uncontrollable blazes, calling them "the real heroes."

While we don’t all have an environmental organization we created -- or 5 million to donate -- there is always something we can all do to help.

Don't know where to start?

• A donation to the Rainforest Action Network will help to protect an acre of the Amazonian rainforest.
• You can also donate to the Rainforest Trust, and help buy land in the rainforest. This organization has been around since 1988, and in that time has saved over 23 million acres!
• The World Wide Fund for Nature (known as the World Wildlife Fund in the US and Canada) is helping to protect species in the Amazon and around the world.
• Plant a tree, just by playing online. Ecosia.org is a search engine that plants a tree for every 45 searches you run.  
• A donation to Amazon Watch will help to protect the rainforest, defends Indigenous rights and works to address climate change.
• Donate to the Amazon Conservation Team, which is fighting climate change and protecting the Amazon.A