The American actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, published a message on his Twitter account that fills all Ticos with pride: “Costa Rica recovered its lost forest. Can the world learn from that? “, says the tweet with which the Oscar winner praises Costa Rica for its fight against deforestation.
Using an article by CNN Travel, the actor drew attention to the forest problems that affect the entire world and that according to his perspective accelerate climate change.
“While most of the world is realizing the importance of trees in the fight against the climate emergency, Costa Rica has years ahead of it on this issue,” reads a part of the article: Costa Rica regrew its lost forest. Can the world learn from it? https://t.co/qaAMkBv6k5 – Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) July 29, 2020.
The report also contains stories from Costa Ricans who have undertaken projects in this regard. For example, he cites the case of Pedro García, who in Jícaro de Sarapiquí managed to convert a pasture for cattle into a wildlife refuge “thickly wooded, where the aroma of vanilla floats in the air and hummingbirds buzz among the fruit trees”.
DiCaprio’s tweet is not at all unusual, as he is a committed environmentalist. He commonly speaks out against environmental policies that he considers harmful and collaborates financially with international initiatives against climate change.
His trips to Costa Rica
When DiCaprio talks about Costa Rica, it is because he knows it.The protagonist of films such as The Revenant (2015), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) have visited the country on several occasions, enjoying the beaches and its green forests.
In 2005, for example, he surfed in the waters of Mal País, together with his ex-girlfriend Gisele Bundchen. In 2013, the actor’s entry into the country was registered, in what was another discrete pleasure trip.
As if that weren’t enough, in 2014 DiCaprio mentioned that he had swum with sharks on Cocos Island. He did so during the celebration of the Our Ocean Summit, held in Washington. On that occasion, Leo said that he witnessed the illegal and abusive fishing that occurs in maritime areas of the world.
“Last year I visited Isla del Coco, a national park off the coast of Costa Rica where I had the opportunity to swim with 15 different species of sharks (…) We stayed inside a protected marine area where it was technically illegal to hunt sharks and other marine life within 10 miles of the sanctuary, but every night we saw illegal fishing boats invade the waters just a mile offshore,” said the actor.
