Leo Pledges $$$ To Amazon

Leonardo DiCaprio is using his newly launched Earth Alliance foundation to help fund the Amazon’s indigenous communities as fires rage across the rainforest.

DiCaprio launched Earth Alliance in July with Laurene Powell Jobs and Brian Sheth. The Amazon Forest Fund is being earmarked to provide money to local organizations working to protect the Amazon and survive amid terrifying blazes that are threatening local wildlife and Earth’s oxygen. The Amazon is known as “the planet’s lungs,” and produces 20% of our oxygen.

“Yesterday, we launched the Amazon Forest Fund, the first initiative from the newly formed @EarthAlliance,” DiCaprio announced on Instagram early Monday. “The fund was set up to help local partners and the indigenous communities on the front lines protecting the Amazon.”

So far, there have been 72,843 fires in Brazil this year, with half of them ravaging the Amazon. Since Thursday, 9,507 new ones have been spotted, primarily in the Amazon basin. Year-over-year, experts say the rate of fires in the Amazon has increased by 83%.