DiCaprio Named Ambassador For International Fund For Animal Welfare

Leonardo DiCaprio is heading a campaign to shut down ivory trading. The International Fund for Animal Welfare is organizing the effort. The campaign, launched this week as part of an annual international education program, is targeting seven million teachers, students and their families in more than 15 countries. DiCaprio serves as the global ambassador for the program, which highlights a different animal and conservation theme each year. This year the campaign’s theme is “Elephants, Never Forget,” and focuses on the crisis that elephants face 20 years after the enactment of an international ban on ivory trading. “Authorities in 85 countries have seized almost 400 tons of ivory on the black market since the 1989 ivory trade ban,” DiCaprio said. “In the past century, the number of elephants in the wild has declined by 50 percent. Their disappearance could devastate ecosystems and have a lasting impact on the biodiversity of our planet.” For more info on the elephant slaughter, the illegal ivory trade and how you can help, go to www.ifaw.org.