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WWF launches ‘Team Forest’ campaign to rally football fans for nature – EnviroNews
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The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has launched an innovative global campaign dubbed “Team Forest”, using football’s worldwide appeal to mobilize people to support forest conservation and environmental protection.
The campaign seeks to unite football fans, teams and communities around the world in a collective effort to protect forests, which WWF describes as humanity’s shared home ground.
At the heart of the initiative is a visually striking campaign film produced in partnership with Studio Birthplace and filmed in Indonesia’s Lorong Oxygen Forest.
The production transforms the forest into a football pitch, with professional footballers and stunt performers running, jumping and soaring through the landscape to symbolise the collective effort needed to protect forests.
According to WWF, the campaign is designed to harness the energy and passion associated with football while raising awareness about the growing threats facing tropical forests.
To participate, supporters are encouraged to join Team Forest through WWF’s online platform, where they can create personalised avatars, learn about forests and discover actions they can take to help protect and restore forest ecosystems.
WWF Director General, Kirsten Schuijt, said the campaign reflects the universal importance of forests and the need for collective action to safeguard them.
“Football is for everyone and so are our forests. No matter where you are from, forests are foundational to life. But forests are in trouble and they urgently need our support,” Schuijt said.
“As the world comes together for the Football World Cup, we invite everyone to join Team Forest and root for these critical ecosystems that sustain us. Let’s play for the home ground we all share.”
The initiative builds on WWF’s long-standing collaboration with football organizations, clubs and players to promote conservation and environmental awareness.
Among notable examples are WWF-Mexico’s partnership with footballer Raúl Jiménez and Wolverhampton Wanderers to support Mexican wolf conservation, WWF-Cameroon’s collaboration with football legend Roger Milla on climate change awareness, and WWF UK’s campaign involving Premier League and English Football League clubs to highlight biodiversity loss.
In Ecuador, WWF partnered with the Ecuadorian Football Federation in 2025 to address single-use plastic pollution during football matches.
The partnership included waste audits during World Cup qualifying matches, with findings used to inform future waste reduction measures.
WWF-Ecuador Communication and Education Manager, Juan Martin Muller, described football as one of the most powerful platforms for social change.
“Football doesn’t just fill stadiums – it shapes identities, crosses borders and ignites collective action like nothing else, making it one of the most powerful vehicles for positive change on our planet,” Muller said.
He added that Team Forest provides an opportunity for people around the world to unite behind the protection of forests that are essential to humanity’s future.
WWF emphasised that forests play a critical role in sustaining life, supporting more than 1.6 billion people who depend on them for food, fuel and medicine.
Forests are also home to more than half of all terrestrial species and absorb approximately one-third of global carbon dioxide emissions annually.
As the conservation organisation marks decades of work in forest protection, Team Forest aims to build a global movement that encourages greater public participation in preserving forests and combating deforestation.
WWF said the campaign comes at a time of growing international momentum for forest conservation and seeks to inspire millions of people to become active supporters of nature protection efforts worldwide.
By Winston Mwale, AfricaBrief
