Leonardo DiCaprio is in hot water with the Indonesian government after a series of Instagram posts criticising the palm oil industry for its contributions to deforestation in the country, according to the BBC.
On Sunday, DiCaprio visited Gunung Leuser National Park in Indonesia, where he posted a series of photos of himself interacting with protected animals to his Instagram.
“The expansion of Palm Oil plantations is fragmenting the #forest and cutting off key elephant migratory corridors, making it more difficult for elephant families to find adequate sources of food and water,” was the post that accompanied one photo. In another, he blamed the palm oil industry for the deforestation threatening the Sumatran orangutan.
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The Indonesian government didn’t approve of some of the comments. "If DiCaprio's posting in his social media can be categorised as incitement or provocation, we can blacklist him from coming back to Indonesia,” Heru Santoso, the spokesperson for the director general of the immigration department, told the BBC.
Palm oil, which is used in many snack foods and household products, is a huge industry in Indonesia. Last year, it exported about 33 million tons making it the world's top producer of the oil. Together, Indonesia and Malaysia produce about 80% of the global supply. According to financial firm PricewaterhouseCooper, the oil is the nation's third largest export earner.
But the nation’s economic health comes with an cost to the environment. The World Wildlife Fund found that clearing for the industry has destroyed critical habitat for many endangered species, including rhinos and elephants, two of the species that DiCaprio mentions in his posts.
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