Why Is Leonardo DiCaprio Being Asked To 'Save' Lake Baikal?

Lake Baikal is a crescent-shaped body of water in the heart of Siberia that is bigger than Belgium and holds around one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water.

For the past week, Leonardo DiCaprio's (pictured here with fellow actors in 2013) Instagram feed has been overwhelmed with thousands of pleas such as "Leo, please! Help us #savebaikal." So why Leo, and why now?

Fishermen hauling in a catch from Baikal in 1977. The lake has long been a battleground between government and commercial interests seeking to capitalize on the vast watery resource and environmentalists trying to preserve it.

Beginning in 1966, the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill slurped the lake’s pristine waters into its production floor, where as many as 2,000 people were once employed. After years of bitter debate, the unprofitable mill closed in 2013.

Everyday trash has also historically been a problem in the lake, though volunteer cleanup efforts (pictured) and a changing attitude to littering have helped restore it.

But in recent years, tourism to Baikal, especially from China, has ramped up sharply, thanks in part to a hit Mandarin song about the lake. From 2017 to 2018, the number of Chinese tourists reportedly jumped 37 percent to 186,000.

Lakeside in the tourist town of Listvyanka. The influx of foreign visitors has fueled tensions in some of the villages surrounding the lake, where massive Chinese investment is funding high-rise hotels and resorts. In 2019, the mayor of Listvyanka was charged with allowing the construction of Chinese-owned hotels on land reserved for private housing.

A rash of new guesthouses near the coast of Baikal. Some locals say they fear Chinese accommodation will employ only Chinese workers, and with the foreign businesses reportedly not paying taxes, many Russians feel they have little to gain from the developments. One man told a reporter, “We shouldn’t say we don’t want the Chinese, but they weren’t here before, and now they are.”

Things came to a head in early 2019, when a Chinese-owned company began laying pipes (pictured) for a bottling plant that would have sucked millions of liters of water from the clear depths of Lake Baikal.

The news that Baikal’s water was to be bottled and exported mostly abroad sparked a petition that garnered more than 1 million signatures. In March, the plant’s construction was suspended.

But the flurry of attention prompted a popular Russian Instagram account to turn to DiCaprio, who once described himself as “half-Russian,” in an attempt push Baikal into world headlines. On July 18, the Instagram account ves_ulan_ude_ urged followers to alert the star to what they see as a crisis in Baikal. “He’s a famous eco warrior and media personality. Compatriots, support the movement. Baikal is our everything.”

One Instagrammer commented on a recent post from DiCaprio with a summary: “Hi Leo, so this is what’s happening in Russia. They’ve sold Baikal to the Chinese and are going to pump the water out of it. Help save Baikal. Putin and his poodles are robbing the wealth of the country and selling it. Give us a response, any response.”

Other commenters have referenced DiCaprio’s Russian heritage, pleading with the star to “remember your grandma” and intervene.

DiCaprio has yet to comment on the campaign.