Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gives $3 million grant to save tigers
November 22, 2013
(Reuters) – Actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s conservation foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to the World Wildlife Fund to help Nepal increase its tiger population.The WWF said on Thursday that the money from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, set up by the 39-year-old star of “The Great Gatsby” and the upcoming film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” will be used for an initiative to double the number of tigers in Nepal by 2022 – the next Chinese year of the tiger.
“His foundation is all about delivering real results for conservation on the ground and empowering local communities; nowhere is that more evident than in Nepal,” Carter Roberts, the president and CEO of the WWF, said in a statement. DiCaprio said a statement that the world’s population of 3,200 tigers was endangered by “habitat destruction and escalating illegal poaching.” His foundation has helped increase the number of tigers in Nepal’s Terai Bardia National Park from 18 to 50.