In posts on his Instagram account, Mr DiCaprio said he was working to save the Leuser ecosystem, “the last place on Earth where Sumatran orang-utans, tigers, rhinos and elephants coexist in the wild”.
On Twitter, he posted, external a link to a petition addressed to the Indonesian President Joko Widodo, calling for the area to be protected.
Some members of the government have accused him of running a “black campaign” to discredit the government and the country’s palm oil industry.
But Farwiza Farhan, chairperson of the group Forest, Nature and Environment of Aceh, told BBC Indonesia that the Oscar-winning actor had done nothing wrong.
“The claim that he was trying to discredit Indonesia doesn’t make sense because these environment campaigns are local movements,” she said.
“He just gave his support. Tourists can come and speak their opinion. When Leo arrived in Medan he was shocked that the haze was so thick, he asked us: ‘Is this smoke or clouds?'”