Katharina Buczek
Scientists from the United Kingdom recently discovered a new tree and named it Uvariopsis DiCaprio.
Does this name sound familiar? Well, the tree is indeed named after Leonardo DiCaprio.
Besides his overwhelming successful career in Hollywood, the actor has long been known as an environmental activist, too.
In 1998, he established The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation with a mission to protect “Earth’s last wild places and implement solutions to build a more harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world.”
Since then, the foundation has continued to support over thirty-five international conservation projects.
DiCaprio is also a board member for numerous environmental protection agencies, such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the World Wildlife Fund, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and more. And, most recently, in 2020, DiCaprio took to social media to help stop logging in the Ebo Forest.
The group of scientists announced their dedication in the scientific journal PeerJ.
“This threatened and spectacular tree is named for the American actor and conservationist Leonardo DiCaprio, who, through several months in 2020, lobbied extensively on social media to draw attention to threats for the numerous rare Ebo species from the logging concession that had been announced at Ebo earlier that year,” the scientists wrote.
“The concession was canceled in August 2020, surely partly due to his efforts.”
