Leonardo DiCaprio donates tens of thousands to Edinburgh project

HOLLYWOOD actor Leonardo DiCaprio is supporting the expansion of an award-winning Edinburgh Napier University conservation project in Kenya.

Leonardo DiCaprio poses with social entrepreneur Josh Littlejohn at Social Bite restaurant, Home last November.

The university initiative was included in a round of grants from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation which were announced by the film star at a conference at Yale University - securing $50,000.

Mikoko Pamoja – ‘Mangroves Together’ in Swahili - involves Edinburgh-based scientists working with local villagers and researchers to protect threatened mangrove forests and fund community development.

The project in Kenya’s Gazi Bay, 50km south of Mombasa, was recently named as a winner of the 2017 Equator Prize by the United Nations Development Programme.

Leonardo DiCaprio poses with social entrepreneur Josh Littlejohn at Social Bite restaurant, Home last November.

Now The Revenant and Wolf of Wall Street actor has announced funding from the Foundation he established to try to repeat the project’s success in the Vanga Blue Forest area of the east African country.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation works with environmental experts, organisations and philanthropists to protect threatened ecosystems, and has gradually built a significant international grant-making operation.

DiCaprio paid a high-profile visit to Edinburgh last year making a keynote speech at the Scottish Business Awards and visiting social enterprise restaurant Home. 1479386405136