At the tender age of 9, Felix Finkbeiner, inspired by the story of Wangari Maathai, developed the idea that children could promote climate justice by planting a million trees in every country. With the support of children from over a hundred countries, Felix launched the child and youth initiative Plant-for-the-Planet in 2007.
Felix and his team organize academies (one-day workshops) at which children learn the tools and knowledge they need to excel as ambassadors for climate justice and to empower other children, as well as adults, to raise awareness of the need for sustainability. Plant-for-the-Planet has appointed more than 55,000 Climate Justice Ambassadors so far and aims to increase that number to one million. Owing to the efforts of the children of Plant-for-the-Planet, the number of planted trees is expected to grow to 1,000 billion (150 trees per person).
After two years of intense deliberations, Felix and the other children of Plant-for-the-Planet finalized a 3-point-plan to save the future of present and future generations. The overall message of the plan is: “Stop talking. Start planting”. The children are using the worldwide “Stop talking. Start planting”-campaign, the 3-point plan and the data on pledged and planted trees to win the support of heads of state, business people and other fellow public citizens in the fight for climate justice.
In December 2011, UNEP handed over the responsibility for the Billion Tree Campaign to the children of Plant-for-the-Planet. Now, the children are responsible for the official global tree counter, which has already recorded nearly 14 billion planted trees.
