We're excited to be partnering with Football for Forests, an initiative to restore tropical rainforests pitch-by-pitch through the power of football.
The world is currently losing 17 football pitches of forest every minute to deforestation. Football for Forests seeks to reverse this narrative and make the football pitch a measure of reforestation, restoring tropical forests and mobilising the world’s 3.5 billion football fans to help.
Fans can support forest restoration by signing up on the Football for Forests app, registering as a supporter of a club, and committing a donation of their choice for each goal scored by their team. And for the UEFA EURO 2024 competition fans can also support their country’s team via the app. Clubs and national teams then compete to raise funds and restore more forest via league tables on the app.
To celebrate the EUROs, Football for Forests and Trillion Trees have launched a special revival of an animation that won fame during the EURO 2004 tournament. 'Footie badgers 2024 - Goals Plant Trees' is designed to engage football fans and EUROs enthusiasts to get involved and play their part in climate action by signing up and pledging a cash amount to Football for Forests for each goal their country scores.
Trillion Trees is the principal implementation partner of Football for Forests, restoring forests with the right trees, in the right places, in the right way across a network of projects in tropical forest countries. To kick-start the partnership, work is already underway restoring 103 hectares of forest in Colombia with Football for Forests’ support, using donations received from fans, matched with funding from German development agency, GIZ. The partnership opens up the potential to restore more than 200,000 hectares across the world, the equivalent of more than 280,000 football pitches or more than 218 million trees.
James Atkins, Co-Founder of Football for Forests said: “We are delighted to have secured this partnership with Trillion Trees as the ‘delivery partner’ in our project – summarised by the slogan ‘Goals Plant Trees’. We at Football for Forests will track the goals and entrust the planting and regrowing of natural forests to Trillion Trees.”
Tim Rayden, Forest Restoration Lead, Wildlife Conservation Society said: “Football for Forests offers a unique opportunity to mobilise football fans around the world to engage in environmental action. We are excited to be working together and delighted to be Football for Forests’ implementation partner. Trillion Trees is committed to high quality forest restoration on the ground in places where we can make a real impact for people, nature and climate.”
Cleo Cunningham, Head of Climate and Forest Conservation, BirdLife International said: “The Football for Forests (F4F) initiative is targeting a key need: to involve more people in conservation. F4F brings together the core principles of football - community and teamwork - with awareness raising around the loss of our world’s forests, the impacts of climate change and how, together, we can make a real difference to restore our planet. BirdLife International is proud to be partnering with Football for Forests, mobilising finance for tropical forest restoration worldwide in ways that bring benefits to nature, local people and the climate.”
Laura D’Arcy, Head of Trillion Trees for WWF commented: “Forests across the world are in crisis. To fight climate change and guard against biodiversity loss, we must work together collaboratively to both protect the forests we have and restore what has been lost. The need is urgent. Through Football for Forests we can reach out to the millions of football fans around the world and encourage them to take a small action that will collectively make a big difference for forests, for people and for the planet.”
