American actor Leonardo DiCaprio on Saturday denied a claim by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that he had helped fund groups allegedly linked to fires in the Amazon rain forest.

“While worthy of support,” the 45-year-old DiCaprio said in a statement on his Instagram account, “we did not fund the organisations targeted.”

In his weekly broadcast Thursday, Bolsonaro accused DiCaprio of “collaborating with the fires in the Amazon” by donating $500,000 to a group he said had started fires in the ecologically sensitive forest in order to attract donations.

While citing no evidence, Bolsonaro said that DiCaprio had earmarked a part of the $500,000 “for the people who were setting fires”. The far-right Brazilian president repeated the accusations on Friday.

DiCaprio, long an environmental activist, said in his denial that “the future of these irreplaceable ecosystems is at stake, and I am proud to stand with the groups protecting them”. He offered praise for those in Brazil who work “to save their natural and cultural heritage”.

Since 2018, the Alter do Chao volunteer fire brigade has helped firefighters combat huge blazes in northern Para state, including a recent fire in the Alter do Chao region that destroyed the equivalent of 1,600 soccer fields.