Cameroon Football icon, Roger Milla, November 11 embarked on a journey with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), to “save mother nature” through a campaign dubbed “Sports for Nature.” Through this campaign, Milla’sFoundation,Coeur d’Afrique, a charity, alongside WWF will carry out a series of awareness raising activities on the sidelines of the female African Cup of Nations to be hosted by Cameroon from November 19 to December 4, 2016.

At a press conference to launch the campaign, Milla said he and other athletes are committed to protect nature from utter destruction. “For the past 50 years, scientists have been warning of a possible destruction of the environment,” the footballer, who is also Roving Ambassador for Cameroon, said in his speech. “We are watching helplessly as our environment is being negatively transformed. Through my voice, sports men and women have decided to mobilize and commit to safeguarding nature,” he said.

“This is an appeal to the national and international communities for the preservation of our planet,” Milla declared.

The Country Director for WWF Cameroon, Dr. Hanson Njiforti, said Sports for Nature is conceived as a campaign aimed at touching the hearts and minds of football fans and the public at largeto take action on the environmental challenges facing our planet and Cameroon in particular.

“There is an urgent need for the peoples of the world to get together, speak with one voice and make the right decisions to save the planet, adding that for WWF, icons like Roger Milla represent the omniscient voice that can rally people across all boundaries and colour lines to lend a hand to this troubled world.”The launch was also marked by the projection of a video from the female football team of Cameroon expressing their support for the campaign.

The Sports for Nature Campaign will be carried out in and around stadia hosting the nation’s cup in the cities of Yaounde and Limbe. It will be marked by donation of dustbins to the stadia, planting of trees around the stadia and distribution of flyers and animation of stands, including the erection of billboards in the key towns hosting the events.

It is supported by the Project for the conservation of Biodiversity in Central Africa, Safeguarding Elephants of Central Africa (PCBAC-SEAC). Financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), through the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the project is carried out in Cameroon, Tchad and Central African Republic.

This is the second time in eight months that Roger Milla and his Coeur d’Afrique Foundation have joined WWF to campaign for the protection of the environment. In March Milla participated in the first ever Earth Hour campaign organized by WWF Cameroon which saw the planting of trees in some schools in Yaounde and huge awareness campaign involving schools from the Centre, East and Littoral Regions of Cameroon.

Roger Milla became famous in 1990, after scoring four vital goals for the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, thereby enabling Cameroon and Africa to get to the quarter finals of the FIFA World Cup hosted by Italy for thefirst time.