Los Angeles:
Oscar-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio might face ban from returning to Indonesia after he criticized the nation’s palm oil plantations for destroying rain forests.
The environmental activist, 41, visited the Indonesian island of Sumatra last month and posted on Instagram that the palm oil industry was threatening such wildlife in the Leuser Ecosystem as Sumatran elephants, tigers and orangutans.
Plantations often use slash-and-burn techniques to clear forest in the area, reported Us magazine.
“The expansion of palm oil plantations is fragmenting the forest and cutting off key elephant migration corridors, making it more difficult for elephant families to find adequate sources of food and water,” DiCaprio had written.
Heru Santoso, a spokesperson for the Indonesian government, responded to the posts by threatening to prevent the “Wolf of Wall Street” actor from visiting the Southeast Asian country again.
“We support his concern to save the Leuser ecosystem,” Santoso said.
“But we can blacklist him from returning to Indonesia at any time if he keeps posting incitement or provocative statements in his social media.”
