HOLLYWOOD actor Leonardo DiCaprio has teamed up with a Scottish university to support the expansion of a conservation project in Kenya.
The initiative by Edinburgh Napier University will receive $50,000 (£37,000) in the latest round of grants from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation which he announced at a conference at Yale University in Connecticut.
Mikoko Pamoja – "Mangroves Together" in Swahili – involves Edinburgh-based scientists working with Kenyan villagers and researchers to protect threatened mangrove forests and fund community development.
The project in Gazi Bay, 50km south of Mombasa, won the 2017 Equator Prize by the United Nations Development Programme.
Now the actor has announced foundation funding to try and repeat the project’s success in the Vanga Blue Forest area of the east African country.
DiCaprio’s foundation was established in 1998 with the help of environmental experts and philanthropists and has gradually built an international grant-making operation.
The actor addressed a Yale climate change conference and said the foundation was “proud to support the environmental work” of more than 100 organisations at home and abroad.
He added: “These grantees are active on the ground, protecting our oceans, forests and endangered species for future generations – and tackling the urgent, existential challenges of climate change.”
Mangroves protect coastal communities from storms and tsunamis and are efficient natural carbon sinks, locking and storing CO2 at up to five times the rate of tropical rainforests. They also form an important habitat for fish and wildlife.
However, environmental experts say they are being destroyed at an alarming rate, threatening the livelihoods of local farmers and fishermen and triggering the release of greenhouse gases.
The Mikoko Pamoja project involved Edinburgh Napier staff and students working with the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute in Gazi Bay to explore the ecological value of mangroves in helping the ecosystem recover.
The model will now be used in community projects to Vanga on Kenya’s south coast, with the grant-making body covering start-up costs.
Professor Mark Huxham, who is leading the university’s work in the area, said: “Protecting mangroves helps the people who rely on them, the wildlife that lives in them and the climate upon which we all depend.
“We have shown how scientists, government and local people can work together to conserve forests and improve lives at Gazi, our current site.
"This support from the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation will help us expand our efforts to Vanga, the largest mangrove forest in southern Kenya, where local people have asked for our help in securing their forest for the future.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here