Leonardo DiCaprio To Donate $43 Million To Help Save Galápagos Islands’ Endangered Species

Leonardo DiCaprio has made a $43 million pledge to help protect – and reintroduce – species that have become extinct in the Galápagos Islands.

DiCaprio is going to work on the project alongside a group of international conservationists coming from the organizations Galápagos National Park Directorate, Island Conservation and “local communities under the umbrella Re:wild organization,” which was founded in 2021.

The $43 million donation is aimed to help endangered species, such as the pink iguana, and to protect the islands against ecotourism.

“When I travelled to the Galápagos Islands, I met with Paula Castaño and other environmental heroes in Ecuador working day in and day out to save on of the most irreplaceable places on the planet,” said DiCaprio. “Around the world, the wild is declining. We have degraded three-quarters of the wild places and pushed more than one million species to the brink of extinction. More than half of the Earth’s remaining wild areas could disappear in the next few decades if we don’t decisively act.”

Castaño plans to use DiCaprio’s social media accounts on Instagram and Twitter in order to promote the project and keep people informed.

“Time is running out for so many species, especially on islands where their small populations are vulnerable and threatened,” said Castaño. “We need catalytic investments like the one announced today to replicate our success in the Galápagos and elsewhere.”