Actor Leonardo DiCaprio joins unique Australian bird ploy

Leonardo DiCaprio has shocked fans with his unexpected interest in a uniquely Australian issue.

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio has thrown his support behind a Tasmanian conservation effort by posting the plight of the critically endangered swift parrot to his over 80 million followers.

The post, to his 19 million Facebook followers and 62.2 million Instagram followers, praised Australian conservationists for winning a temporary injunction to stop logging in the Tasmanian nesting sites of the critically endangered swift parrot.

The post quickly went viral. Picture: Facebook

“Only an estimated 750 swift parrots remain, yet forest destruction has continued in their sole breeding sites in Eastern Tasmania,” the post read.

The injunction was granted by the Tasmanian supreme court on January 31 after a legal challenge brought by the Bob Brown Foundation.

The Bob Brown Foundation responded by reposting the star’s post with the words “this is incredible”.

“Incredible” Australian conservationists thank DiCaprio for sharing the plight of the swift parrot. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

“A huge thank you to Leonardo DiCaprio for sharing news about our campaign to protect swift parrots,” the organisation, founded by former Greens leader Bob Brown, posted to their Instagram.

A commenter asked federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek to “please end native forest logging and stop all new coal and gas mines”.

Leonardo DiCaprio calls for an end to native forest logging in Australian and Tasmania. Picture: Instagram

“Thank you Leonardo DiCaprio for giving attention to our beautiful swift parrots,” the comment read.

“We also need to end native forest logging to save our forests for our endangered koalas, greater gliders, swift parrots, glossy black cockatoos and many more wildlife.”

Dr Brown invited DiCaprio to Tasmania to “see this beautiful island, its forests and wildlife for himself” in a statement.

“Leonardo DiCaprio has put Tasmania on the map big time, and the plight of the Swift Parrot is now well and truly global,” Dr Brown said.

“We are delighted to see Leonardo’s full endorsement of our campaign to end native forest logging and save the critically endangered Swift Parrots.”

Bob Brown was arrested while protesting the logging of swift parrot habitat in 2022. Picture: Bob Brown Foundation

DiCaprio’s post highlighted the federal government’s “zero extinctions” policy and said it was conservationists who “encourage” the government to uphold this commitment.

“The only way to protect the swift parrot, and hundreds of other threatened Australian forest species, is to end native forest logging across Australia and Tasmania,” the post read.

Bob Brown Foundation campaign manager Jenny Webber said they were on the “frontline” protecting the habitat of the swift parrot.

“Right now, we are on the frontline in Tasmania’s Swift parrot breeding habitat, blockading forests on the logging schedule.

Bob Brown Foundation protesters are protesting at a logging area in Southern Tasmania in hopes to save endangered swift parrot. Photo: Supplied

“Elsewhere in Tasmania, we have secured an interim injunction on logging in breeding habitat that was happening at the end of last year while the parrots were in the same forests. “Across the critically endangered parrot’s breeding habitat, there are many forests threatened by logging when they need to be in secure conservation reserves now,” Ms Weber said in a statement.

Swift parrot chick. Source: Zoodoo Zoo.

Swift Parrot. Picture: Instagram/@leonardodicaprio

The Australian government has been under increasing factional pressure to fulfil what some label a “broken promise” to end native forest logging at the federal level, after the Victorian and Western Australian state governments both banned the practice.

Labor Environment Action Network spokesperson Felicity Wade labelled native forest logging a “travesty” at Labor’s national conference late last year.

“We undermine the government’s policy objectives on ending extinctions and emissions reduction, and we prove ourselves a little bit deaf to the deep environmental concerns of our members,” she said on the continuation of the industry.

The native forestry industry is supported by both the Liberal minority government and the Labor opposition in Tasmania.

Tasmanian Labor states it “strongly supports” Tasmania’s “sustainable” forest industry on its policy platform, committing to “grow” Tasmania’s forest industry in line with federal labor’s policy.

“Labor also believes Tasmania now has the appropriate balance between timber production and conservation of its forests,” the 2019 policy platform reads.

DiCaprio shared a link to a petition by the Bob Brown Foundation, and encouraged readers to join his organisation Re: Wild which aims to “protect the wild that’s left and restore the rest”.