Leonardo DiCaprio's green campaign group has been given £28,800 of taxpayers' cash to lobby for 'rewilding'.

The charity backed by the Oscar-winning actor, who is worth an estimated £200million, received the grant to protect a species of dwarf buffalo called the Tamaraw in the Philippines by conserving land from development, allowing it to remain wild.

The sum appeared in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' accounts as 'official development assistance'.

DiCaprio, 47, launched the conservation project Re:wild last year and has already attracted large donations.

According to its website the actor 'has provided more than $100million (£75 million) in grants to a variety of programmes and projects', with Re:wild described as 'the latest undertaking linked to DiCaprio's environmental activism'.

The star's most recent film, Don't Look Up, sees a deadly comet heading towards Earth in what many have interpreted as a metaphor for climate change.

He said of his role: 'I just felt like this was an incredible gift to be a part of a movie that encapsulated exactly what we're going through.'

The actor recently came under fire for jetting from New York to Miami and back in one day soon after speaking at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

A Defra spokesman said the projects it supports 'focus on local action... to address unsustainable use, habitat degradation and loss, whilst delivering poverty reduction'.

Source: Daily Mail

Powered by NewsAPI.org