In 2020, Brazilian musician Alok launched Instituto Alok to back Amazon conservation with 400,000 seedlings. Today, its projects have helped restore 3 million m² of native forest

When Brazilian musician Alok established Instituto Alok in late 2020, he chose to direct a significant share of his creative earnings back into the soil. Starting with an ambitious goal to plant 400,000 native seedlings, the initiative focused on healing degraded areas of the Amazon rather than chasing short-term public relations wins. By partnering directly with Indigenous communities who know the terrain best, the project ensured that every seedling contributed to both ecological restoration and local social support.

Today, those initial plantings have grown to cover more than 3 million square meters of restored native forest. Reclaiming this land does far more than capture carbon; it reconnects fragmented wildlife corridors, stabilizes soil, and safeguards vital freshwater streams. Alok’s practical approach proves that combining creative capital with Indigenous stewardship can produce genuine, measurable recovery in earth's most critical ecosystems.

Brazilian Musician Alok’s Instituto Alok Restores Nearly 3 Million Square Metres of Amazon Forest

The campaign takes an unusual route to an environmental message. Participants can reproduce an official choreography or respond to the question, “How low can we go? How low can we keep global warming to safeguard our planet for future generations?” Their contributions are being brought together as part of a global music video planned for release on June 5, World Environment Day.


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Alok is contributing original video content and encouraging his international audience to participate. The approach reflects a broader idea behind his new role at UNEP: environmental communication does not always have to begin with policy language or scientific terminology. Music can provide a shared cultural space where people who may never attend a climate conference can still encounter the issue.

That reach is significant. Alok has accumulated more than 7.3 billion Spotify streams and is consistently ranked among the world's leading DJs and producers. His profile also extends well beyond electronic music, giving him an audience large enough to connect environmental campaigns with mainstream entertainment. His appointment is therefore tied less to a single song than to a longer shift in the way he has used his public platform.

Indigenous knowledge has become central to his work

A major part of that shift can be seen in The Future Is Ancestral, an album and philanthropic project developed over three years through Instituto Alok. The project brought together more than 50 musicians from eight Brazilian Indigenous communities and focused on cultural preservation alongside environmental awareness.

The project has been presented at international venues and events including the United Nations during Climate Week, the GRAMMY Museum and the Global Citizen Festival. It was also recognized by UNESCO and received GRAMMY nominations, while Alok was later included on the TIME100 Climate list.

The connection between music and Indigenous communities is personal to the artist's environmental work. Alok has said that the nature and knowledge of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples have influenced both his life and his music, and he has increasingly positioned environmental protection alongside cultural preservation rather than treating the two as separate causes.

That distinction matters in Brazil, where Indigenous communities have long played an important role in protecting ecosystems and maintaining traditional knowledge. Alok’s projects seek to bring those perspectives into a much larger cultural conversation.

Millions of pounds have gone into environmental and social projects

The work is not limited to awareness campaigns. Through the Alok Institute, founded in 2020, the artist has directed nearly £8 million toward social and environmental initiatives in Brazil, Africa and India, according to the information provided by UNEP.

His environmental projects include nature-preservation work in the Amazon and three other Brazilian biomes. Together, those efforts have contributed to the restoration of about 3 million square metres of native forest, with around 400,000 seedlings planted.

The scale is easier to understand when translated into something familiar: the restored area is described as equivalent to more than 300 soccer fields. The figure illustrates how his environmental work has moved beyond individual donations toward longer-term landscape restoration.

His philanthropic partnerships have also contributed more than US$10 million to environmental and cultural initiatives, according to the announcement. The figures cited by different parts of the announcement use different currencies and descriptions, so they should not be treated as identical totals or simply added together.

A new track will connect music with conservation

Alok’s new UNEP role will also involve another musical project. Working with UNEP and partner organization Sounds Right For Nature, he is releasing a track featuring Indigenous voices, with proceeds intended to support conservation work in critical regions around the world.

That project follows the same pattern seen throughout his recent environmental efforts: using music not simply as entertainment, but as a mechanism for funding, visibility and participation.

There is a practical reason such an approach can attract attention. Climate change is often discussed through temperatures, emissions targets and policy negotiations, subjects that can feel distant from everyday life. A song, performance or shared cultural event reaches people through a different entry point.

‘Rave The World’ brings the campaign into a live setting

The campaign moved from digital platforms to a physical stage on June 5, when Alok’s new live performance concept, Rave The World, debuts at London’s O2 Academy Brixton.

The project draws on the original ideals associated with rave culture — unity, peace, love and respect — while linking those principles to a global environmental message. Rather than presenting climate action as a separate cause, the concept places it inside a familiar social experience built around music and collective participation.

It is also a fitting extension of Alok’s new position. A Goodwill Ambassador’s influence depends partly on the ability to communicate beyond traditional environmental audiences, and music gives the campaign an immediate cultural language.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen described music and nature as forces capable of bringing people closer together, while welcoming Alok’s ability to reach millions through his art and advocacy.

The appointment also reflects how celebrity environmental advocacy is evolving. Public figures can attract attention, but the lasting value of such partnerships depends on whether attention leads to participation, funding, conservation work or sustained public engagement.

Alok already has an established record of combining his music career with philanthropy and environmental projects. His new role gives those efforts a much larger institutional platform through UNEP, while the World Environment Day campaign offers a first major test of how effectively a global music audience can be drawn into a conversation about climate action.

Turning Cultural Influence Into Lasting Ecological Restoration

Alok’s work through Instituto Alok is part of a wider shift in celebrity environmental activism. Some public figures are moving beyond awareness campaigns and putting money, infrastructure and personal influence behind projects that can be measured on the ground.

When Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado returned to his family ranch in the late 1990s, he found a barren landscape ruined by severe erosion. Alongside his wife, Lélia, he established Instituto Terra to rebuild the ruined Atlantic Forest from scratch. By planting nearly three million native trees, the couple transformed desertified pasture into a vibrant reserve that brought back endangered wildlife and revived dried-up water springs.

That same spirit of direct ecological responsibility has increasingly taken root across the global music industry. British band Coldplay tied their recent world tour directly to planetary health by committing to plant one native tree for every concert ticket sold. Working with global environmental non-profits, the group turned stadium entertainment into direct habitat recovery, while also funding solar-powered barges to clean polluted rivers.

Meanwhile, musicians like Jack Johnson have embedded conservation into their core business models through dedicated foundations. By redirecting album earnings and tour proceeds toward native tree planting and coastal protection, these figures move beyond temporary publicity. Their efforts show how cultural capital can fund permanent ecological healing, proving that creative work can leave a tangible, living legacy on the land.