WATCH: Football For Forests launches Euro 2024 donation ‘bets’
Supporters can now pledge money per goal scored at UEFA’s international football tournament, which opens Friday 13th June.
Simply log-on to the Football For Forests website or download the standalone app to give money in support of nature restoration.
Extending the offer, it’s also possible to promise money in return for ‘football karma’, donating on behalf of different teams based on specific games. The non-profit has also worked with legendary animator Mr. Weebl on an update to his 2004 classic, Football Badgers, in a bid to increase awareness around deforestation.
‘The way we talk about environmental issues is sometimes all doom and gloom,’ explains James Atkins, Football For Forests’ co-founder. ‘It can leave people feeling alienated and a bit hopeless – how can an ordinary person like me make a difference?
‘An area of tropical forest equivalent to 17 football pitches is destroyed every minute,’ he continued. ‘Rather than focus on that harrowing statistic, we wanted to make it simpler and more fun for people to support reforestation projects, by enabling supporters to donate based on how many goals are scored during the Euros.’
Football For Forests aims to restore 10,000 football pitches, or 7,000 hectares, of lost forestry through community-led projects in regions including the Colombian. In its first year, it helped 56 football pitches’ worth of terrain recover to woodland. The organisation works alongside Trillion Trees, a joint venture between WWF, BirdLife International and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
‘Football for Forests offers a unique opportunity to mobilise football fans around the world to engage in environmental action,’ said Tim Rayden, Forest Restoration Lead at Wildlife Conservation Society. ‘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.’
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Image: Fancy Crave