Forests. They cover over one third of earth’s land area. They are considered to be the planet’s lungs – by providing vital oxygen and homes for people and wildlife. Still, with over 1.6 billion people relying on benefits forests have to offer – including food, fresh water, even clothing, medicine and shelter – they face ongoing destruction that threatens the woods around the world in the form of deforestation which jeopardizes all these benefits. Moreover, wood itself has always been a major renewable energy source that provides the world with more energy than solar, hydroelectric or wind power. It roughly accounts for 45 percent of current global renewable energy supply with 13 percent used in Latin America.

And the situation gets worse for Argentina. In 1990, the country had 34.7 million hectares of natural forests; 25 years later it lost 22% of its forests as their area decreased to 27.11 million. According to FAO – UN report Argentina now ranks 9th (out of 234 countries) among the nations that provide less care to their native trees.

Now imagine that you have a chance to make a difference, and you don’t even need to get out of bed. All you have to do is to wake up.

Or rather get woken up. For UN’s International Day of Forests, that took place on the 21st March, Wunderman BA — a member of the global, collaborative advertising network Young & Rubicam Group & WPP — launched a free mobile app – ECO ALARM.

Brilliantly using ‘Time to wake them up’ tagline, the app – released together with Argentinian NGO ‘Fundación Banco De Bosques’ — gives its users a chance to utilize an alarm clock with which they will be able to help endangered native forests without not only leaving their bed, but also without investing a single cent.

The advertising agency based in Buenos Aires created a music album on Spotify that incorporates sounds recorded at the Forest of Chaco, the Jungle of Misiones and the Andean Forest in Patagonia. A user can then choose from a list of sounds and set them up to be used as their smart-phone’s alarm clock. Every time one of the 9 tracks rings, Spotify will pay royalties to “Fundación Banco de Bosques”.

The funds raised will be used to protect Argentina’s endangered ecosystems.

By judging our own experience with alarm clocks, we think this can make wonders especially for those who snooze their alarm a couple times every day. So, if you want to help save some of the most important forests on our planet, without moving your finger, you can download the app right here!

If you want to find out more about the International Day of Forests, you can either watch Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations’ video promoting the 2017 day on YouTube here, or check out Fundación Banco De Bosques‘ 60-second creative clip from 2014 created by marketing agency JWT and production company BITT, along with the participation of Juana Viale.

Credits:

Agency: Wunderman Buenos Aires

Client: Fundación Banco de Bosques

Executive Creative Directors: Patán Tarazaga / Dany Minaker
Creative Directors: Nicolás Smith / Damán Martinez
Web & App Designer: Fernando Rossini
Copywriter: Gastón Durán
Art Director: Matías Paglieri
Production Manager: Laura Martínez
Group Account Director: Eliana Kaplan
Account Director: Carolina Graziano
Accounts Executive: Leonardo Ferrari
Head of PR: Daniela Tucci
Band: Italians do it better
Technology Director: Francisco Facal
Web Developers: Pablo Mendoza, Javier Corra
Mobile Developers: Gonzalo Rico, Gastón Schattenhofer, Santiago Rulfi
Project Manager: Bárbara Klurfan
Production Company: Huinca Cine S.A.
Director: Juan Manuel Montero
Executive Producer: Diego Turdera
Producer: Alejandro Travaglini
Postproducer: Cristian Martino
Editor: Carla Muzykantski
Sound mixing: CtrolZ
Client’s representatives: Darío Rodríguez, Agostina Trigo
Record Label: Leader Music