In the decade and more that we have been working in Karachi, Pakistan, the one thing we have found fishermen to be very enthusiastic about is a shared love of football.
Across fishing villages, when the community is not out at sea or carrying out tasks in the value chain of fisheries, they can be spotted on local football fields – either chasing the ball across the pitch or cheering from the sidelines.
Around the field, teenagers erupt with excitement at every goal and miss, while older individuals watch the game progress sagely. Their conversations meander from the match in progress and their favourite players, to the day’s catch out in the sea, and back to family or state politics on land.
Usman Iqbal, Programme Manager for ORP Pakistan, a football player and enthusiast himself, was quick to pick up on this social-feature of the villages.
It was from this observation that the idea for a sea turtle conservation-themed football tournament first took hold.
For years, we had been conducting awareness sessions and educational workshops with fishing communities. While these efforts helped build engagement around sea turtle conservation, reaching the many dispersed fisherfolk across Karachi’s coastline remained a challenge.
Our team recognised that football could become the bridge! Soon the playing field became a ground for conservation messaging, and the game a movement for sea turtle conservation.
The tournament in action
After months of planning and coordination, supported generously by Play for Nature, we were ready to host Karachi’s first football tournament dedicated to sea turtle conservation.
From 26rd February to 12th March, eight teams from four fishing villages in Karachi, came together for a series of high-energy football matches, cheered on by enormous crowds – more than 65,000 individuals.
Players, as adept at football as fishing, walked onto the field wearing jerseys branded with ORP’s logo, waving to audiences and flashing the now-popular sea turtle hand sign.
At key moments throughout each match, the focus shifted from the pitch to the ocean. Conservation announcements were made before kick-off, throughout the game, and during half-time, sharing simple but important messages that encouraged the audience to:
- Not keep sea turtles as pets
- Safely release sea turtles accidentally caught in fishing gear by handling them correctly
- Keep the ocean free from litter
Across 15 matches, over 225 conservation announcements were delivered to crowds throughout the tournament.
Many audience members, players, and officials sought out our team members after the games, to report how they regularly encountered sea turtles at sea, but had never paid as much attention to the animals. The sea turtle hand gesture too especially captured people’s attention, sparking curiosity for these sea reptiles.
By the final whistle, sea turtles had become part of the celebration. Players and spectators alike raised their hands in the sea turtle sign – a gesture which symbolised pride, community, and ocean protection.
What came out of it?
This football tournament was, at its heart, an exercise in mobilising communities for conservation through sport.
While people came together for the love of the game, they left having learned something new about sea turtles and the challenges they face.
Apart from the general fanfare surrounding the matches, there was a great deal of curiosity around ORP’s branding on the players’ jerseys. Our logo – depicting a sea turtle entangled in a net – resonated with many audience members, many of whom had encountered sea turtles in their fishing nets while out at sea. That curiosity naturally opened the door to conversations about sea turtles, marine conservation, and ORP’s work in Pakistan.
One particularly important outcome was the connections formed with fishing communities we had previously not engaged with, like the Burmese fishing community near Ibrahim Hyderi. The tournament winners came from this group, and the event helped initiate dialogue for future conservation engagement.
For us, the tournament reinforced an important lesson: conservation works best when it becomes part of people’s everyday lives. By meeting fishing communities on their own turf and connecting through a shared love of football, we created a space for people that felt familiar and enjoyable. Conservation knowledge was then naturally woven within that space, leaving an impression that we hope lasts longer and feels more memorable.
