The unsettling sight of men walking around with half a beard may, for a while, become the norm. That's because BeardsOn for Conservation, an Australian charity, is calling on men to grow a beard and then cut half of it off to raise awareness about worldwide deforestation.
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"We're Movember for the environment," James Stanton-Cooke, 30, founder of BeardsOn, told Fairfax Media.
Cooke says far from being a charity for "greenie hipsters" BeardsOn attracted volunteers from all walks of life.
"We have one family group who have three generations represented this year, a grandfather, son, and grandson. The community response has been amazing."
Participants grow their beards over the course of 90 days and will then go "half-cut" on August 31 to represent the 48 per cent of the world's forests that have been destroyed.
Cooke is anticipating a large amount of interest this year.
"Every $2 dollars we raise plants a tree, we've already raised about $35,000 so that's 17,000 trees this year. Our aim is 70,000 trees.
The organisation is in its fourth year of fundraising and has planted more than 11,000 trees from the Daintree in North Queensland down to the tip of Tasmania.
At the end of the fundraising season this year, Cooke and about "40 lunatics" will walk the streets of Sydney with their half-beards.
"People always come up to us and ask us what's this about, often they're really interested in becoming involved when they hear what we have to say."
BeardsOn for Conservation aim to have planted 40 million trees by 2040.
