US Holywood star Leonardo DiCaprio denied that he had helped fund groups allegedly linked to Amazon rainforest fires.
His remarks came in response to accusations spelled by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday, who noted that DiCaprio had donated half a million dollars to nonprofit groups that “started fires in these forests To attract donations. ”
According to Reuters, Bolsonaro’s remarks about the American actor were part of a wider government campaign against environmental nonprofit groups operating in Brazil.
“DiCaprio is a cool guy, isn’t he? Giving money to set the Amazon on fire,” the president said to supporters in Brasilia.
Earlier, DiCaprio’s environmental organization Earth Alliance has pledged $5 million to help protect the Amazon after a surge in fires destroyed large parts of the rainforest in July and August.
Mean while, “Earth’s Alliance” said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Friday that they had not funded any of the two nonprofits named by investigators so far.
“While worthy of support, we did not fund the organizations targeted,” the statement read. “The future of these irreplaceable ecosystems is at stake and I am proud to stand with the groups protecting them.”
According to Reuters, this is not the first time Brazil’s president has suggested, without evidence, that nonprofit groups are setting fires in the Amazon, or questioned warnings about climate change.
In August, in the midst of an international outcry over the Amazon fires, Bolsonaro blamed the “information war going on in the world against Brazil” and fired the head of the governmental space research institute that monitors deforestation.
Bolsonaro accused the institute’s president, Ricardo Galvão, of manipulating deforestation data to make his administration look bad.
