Earth
Alliance, a new environmental organization made by Leonardo DiCaprio and his
benevolent friends, Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth, has vowed $5 million
to help preserve the Amazon rainforest.
Fires have
surged in the Amazon this year, the world's biggest rainforest is burning at
remarkable rate since 2013, and Brazil's National Institute for Space Research
says more than one-and-a-half soccer fields of Amazon rainforest are being
devastated every minute of every day. The Amazon, which generates about 20% of
Earth's oxygen, is usually referred to as "the planet's lungs." It is
considered very important in slowing global warming.
“#EarthAlliance
has formed an emergency Amazon Forest Fund with $5m to focus critical resources
for indigenous communities and other local partners working to protect the
biodiversity of the Amazon against the surge of fires,” the organization
tweeted on Sunday.
Earth
Alliance stated that its emergency fund will be dispersed between five local
organizations that are "combating the fires, protecting indigenous lands,
and providing relief to the communities impacted." They are: Instituto
Associacao Floresta Protegida, Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of
the Brazilian Amazon, Instituto Kabu, Instituto Raoni and Instituto
Socioambiental.
The Leonardo
DiCaprio Foundation combined with Earth Alliance last month to "help
address the critical dangers to our planet's life support systems." This
partnership builds on DiCaprio's years of activism on the climate crisis.
"Since
its founding in 1998, LDF has provided more than $100 million in grants to
projects in all five oceans and across all seven continents," a July press
release said.
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