Popular Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio has congratulated Bangladesh on the newly established marine protected area around Saint Martin's Island.
DiCaprio, whose Twitter bio reads “Actor and Environmentalist”, wrote on the platform on Friday: “Congrats to the Government of Bangladesh, local communities & NGOs on a newly established Marine Protected Area around Saint Martin’s Island that will protect an incredible community of biodiversity and provide key habitat for Bangladesh’s only coral reef.”
Congrats to the Government of Bangladesh, local communities & NGOs on a newly established Marine Protected Area around Saint Martin’s Island that will protect an incredible community of biodiversity and provide key habitat for Bangladesh’s only coral reef.
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) January 21, 2022
(? : courtesy of WCS) pic.twitter.com/T286nurs7b
The Oscar-winning actor is identified as one of the most active celebrities in the climate change movement, and dedicates most of his social media posts to climate-related news. This is reportedly the first time Bangladesh has appeared in one of his tweets.
The Bangladesh government recently declared around 1,743 square kilometres of area of the Bay of Bengal adjacent to Saint Martin's Island as marine protected area to conserve its rich biodiversity and ecosystem.
The island is now the largest marine protected area in the country.
In 1999, a total of 590 hectares of area of the island was declared as ecologically critical area.
With the new measure, the government hopes to protect the coral and marine aquatic life and marine biodiversity of the island.
Moreover, limiting sustainable extraction of marine resources from the protected area will result in increased marine fish resources and aquatic animal breeding, the authorities expect.