But his newest accolade comes from a bunch of worldwide scientists at London’s Royal Botanic Kew Gardens and the National Herbarium of Cameroon, who’ve honored the Hollywood actor and environmental activist by naming a new tropical tree species after him. The uvariopsis dicaprio comes from the Ebo Forest, Cameroon, in keeping with a press assertion asserting the tropical tree, which is the primary addition to the 2022 new species checklist at RBG Kew. The Ebo Forests includes half of the Yabassi Key Biodiversity Area, which is the ancestral area of greater than 40 native communities, and is dwelling to gorillas, forest elephants and chimpanzees, in keeping with Key Biodiversity Areas. In botany, vegetation are incessantly named after scientists who’ve proven dedication to a discipline of analysis.
DiCaprio drew consideration to the Yabassi Key Biodiversity Area when it was below risk from a logging concession final 12 months.
“Cameroon’s Ebo Forest, and all of the incredible animals that live there, are in trouble. This includes Forest Elephants, Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and so many others. Let’s help #SaveEboForest,” he mentioned in a publish revealed to his verified Twitter account in August 2020.
One month later, the Cameroonian authorities revoked the logging concession.
“We very much appreciated the support Leo gave us in campaigning to protect Ebo last year so it seemed fitting to honour him in this way, naming a species unique only to this forest, after him,” Martin Cheek, a scientist at RBG Kew who was concerned within the analysis, mentioned in a press release asserting the findings, which have been revealed within the scientific journal Peer J on Thursday.
“Had the logging concession gone ahead, we would have likely lost this species to timber extraction and slash and burn agriculture that usually follows logging concessions.”
The uvariopsis dicaprio is a critically endangered species as a result of it resides in an unprotected forest habitat, which is uncovered to risks together with logging and mining.
