Brazilian DJ Alok has helped restore 3 million sq m of native forest across Brazil; 400,000 seedlings have been planted | World News
Brazilian DJ and music producer Alok Achkar Peres Petrillo, known simply as Alok, has taken his environmental work from the stage into forest restoration projects across Brazil. On June 1, 2026, the UN Environment Programme named Alok a Global Goodwill Ambassador, highlighting work carried out through the Alok Institute, which he founded in 2020. According to UNEP, his nature-preservation projects in the Amazon and three other Brazilian biomes have contributed to the restoration of 3 million square metres of native forest, an area equivalent to more than 300 soccer fields, with 400,000 seedlings planted. The appointment coincided with UNEP’s 2026 World Environment Day campaign, which used Alok’s 2022 single “Deep Down” as part of a global climate-action campaign. UNEP describes the song as a multi-platinum dance anthem that has accumulated hundreds of millions of streams worldwide.
Alok’s UNEP appointment brings music and environmental work together
UNEP’s announcement in Nairobi formally made Alok one of the organisation’s Global Goodwill Ambassadors. The appointment followed years of philanthropic and environmental work through Instituto Alok, which UNEP says has donated nearly £8 million to social and environmental initiatives in Brazil, Africa and India. The organisation’s nature projects extend beyond the Amazon to three other Brazilian biomes. UNEP says the projects have contributed to the restoration of 3 million square metres of native forest, with 400,000 seedlings planted.The 2026 World Environment Day campaign, launched on June 5, used Alok’s “Deep Down” as the soundtrack for a global Climate Dance Challenge. UNEP encouraged people to participate through choreography and a question focused on limiting global warming. The campaign also included original video content from Alok, with participant videos forming part of a global music video released for World Environment Day. Alok said that nature and the knowledge and strength of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples had shaped his life and music. UNEP said his work spans music, culture and social impact, including long-running projects involving Indigenous communities in the Amazon. The organisation also noted that Alok had more than 7.3 billion Spotify streams at the time of his appointment, alongside multiple awards and two Latin GRAMMY nominations.
Inside Instituto Alok’s Planeta Verde restoration programme
Much of the Institute’s current environmental work is organised through its Planeta Verde, or Green Planet, programme. The Institute says the programme supports reforestation, ecological restoration and biodiversity protection across different Brazilian ecosystems and biomes, while also considering the livelihoods and leadership of local communities. In Pará, the programme’s Marajó Agroforestry in Family project works with the International Institute for Education of Brazil and families and organisations in the Marajó Archipelago. The Institute says 150 women involved in the project have seen their income increase by 75%, while 240,000 saplings are being planted as part of a project intended to restore about 200 hectares, or 2 million square metres. The project covers the municipalities of Breves, Curralinho, Melgaço, Muaná, Portel and São Sebastião da Boa Vista. By April 2025, the Institute reported that 76.01 hectares of agroforestry systems had already been implemented and 66,891 seedlings had been planted with the participation of 80 families.A separate Planeta Verde project is being carried out in Acre. Called Make the Forest Bloom, Field of Plenty, it involves an agroforestry restoration project covering seven hectares of land damaged by an illegal fire in 2019. The area is home to the Huwã Karu Yuxibu Centre, associated with the Huni Kuin community. In February 2025, the Alok Institute team participated in a planting event there involving nearly 2,000 seedlings, alongside SOS Amazônia volunteers, university staff and members of the Huni Kuin community. The Institute says a community nursery connected with the project is planned to produce 12,000 saplings annually. The distinction between these projects matters because the nearly 2,000 seedlings planted during the February 2025 event were part of the Acre project, not the Marajó project. The Institute’s own account separately reports the planting figures for the Pará and Acre initiatives.
The Future Is Ancestral puts Indigenous music at the centre of the work
Environmental restoration is only one part of Alok’s work with Indigenous communities. His project The Future Is Ancestral brought together Alok and more than 50 Indigenous musicians representing eight Brazilian Indigenous communities. According to the Alok Institute, the album involved more than 500 hours of recordings and was created to amplify Indigenous voices and preserve musical and cultural heritage. The project was developed over three years and has been presented at events including United Nations Climate Week in New York, the Global Citizen Festival and the GRAMMY Museum. The GRAMMYs reported that the album was recognised by UNESCO for its relevance to the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, while UNEP describes it as a UNESCO-recognised and GRAMMY-nominated album and philanthropic project. The project also includes work with communities such as the Yawanawá and Huni Kuin peoples. The Alok Institute says the project aims to create greater recognition of Indigenous knowledge and cultural traditions, while all revenue from the project’s music is directed back towards the participating artists and communities.
Rave The World turned the climate campaign into a live event
The UNEP appointment also coincided with the launch of Rave The World, a new live performance concept developed by Alok around the principles of unity, peace, love and respect associated with rave culture. Rather than being an upcoming event, the first performance took place on June 5, 2026, at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, on World Environment Day. UNEP described the concept as a way of bringing the campaign from online participation into a shared live experience. The UNEP partnership also included a new track featuring Indigenous voices, released in collaboration with the organisation Sounds Right for Nature. UNEP said proceeds from the track would support conservation efforts in important regions around the world.Alongside his environmental projects, Alok was included in TIME’s 2025 TIME100 Climate list, which recognised 100 people described by TIME as leaders driving climate action. UNEP also says that, through partnerships, Alok has contributed more than US$10 million to environmental and cultural initiatives. That figure should be distinguished from the nearly £8 million that UNEP separately attributes to donations through the Alok Institute. They are different figures referring to different aspects of his philanthropic activity and should not be added together. The 3 million square metres of restored native forest and 400,000 seedlings cited by UNEP represent the combined scale of the nature-preservation work it attributes
Source link
