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Indonesia threatens to bar DiCaprio

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio may be banned from returning to Indonesia over his criticisms that palm oil plantations are destroying the country’s rainforests and endangering wildlife, an immigration official said Saturday.

The Oscar winner made a one-day visit to protected Mount Leuser National Park in northern Sumatra last weekend and uploaded photos to his Instagram account , expressing concerns over species whose habitats are threatened.

“The expansion of palm oil plantations is fragmenting the forest and cutting off key elephant migration corridors,” he posted. “A world-class biodiversity hotspot, but palm oil expansion is destroying this unique place.”

Heru Santoso, the spokesman for the Directorate General for Immigration at the Law and Human Rights Ministry, said that DiCaprio used his visit to discredit the palm oil industry and the Indonesian government.

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