By empowering youth through climate education, Plant-for-the-Planet’s homegrown tree-planting mission has evolved into an international reforestation and conservation movement.
The climate crisis is one of the most pervasive threats facing the world today. Research continues to show that without action there will be dire consequences for both people and the planet. One group in particular is caught in the crossfire of the climate crisis: young people.
“The climate crisis is the biggest challenge of our time. It’s our generation that’s going to suffer the consequences if we don’t address this right now,” says Felix Finkbeiner, the 25-year-old founder of Plant-for-the-Planet (Planet), a global forest restoration movement he conceived when he was nine years old that provides research, free software tools, and advice to organizations fighting global warming.
Plant-for-the-Planet has a simple call to action for its growing network of youth activists: Plant more trees.
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The planet-saving potential of trees
Listen to Felix Finkbeiner on the power of the youth climate movement.
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EXPLAINER: See why Plant-for-the-Planet is planting 1 trillion trees for a greener future.
Climate Justice Ambassador, Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico
PAULINA SANCHEZ
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BEHIND THE SCENES: Episode 9
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The power of younger generations in fighting the climate crisis
Why? Forests and wetlands absorb 30% of carbon emissions from industry and fossil fuels—and yet, they are under immense threat. Every year, the world loses approximately 10 million hectares of these complex ecosystems to deforestation, forest degradation, and increasingly severe wildfires. Their absence plays a key role in driving global temperatures above 1.5˚ C or even to 2˚ C —the heat threshold labeled “disastrous” for humankind and nature alike by leading climate scientists.
“Our mission is to protect the world’s existing 3 trillion trees and regrow another 1 trillion,” explains Finkbeiner. “If we manage to restore forests at that scale, while also ending the world’s reliance on oil, gas, and coal, we can make sure that global warming doesn’t exceed the 1.5˚ C limit. To reach this goal, we’ve started a global youth movement.”
A homegrown solution
Finkbeiner learned early on that young people could play a critical role in fighting the climate crisis. At just nine-years-old, he invited his classmates to help him in planting 1 million trees in every country. His advocacy was inspired by the work of Wangarĩ Maathai, an environmental activist from Kenya who started a movement in 1977 to plant 30 million trees in 30 years across Africa.
Word quickly spread of Finkbeiner’s goal, and he began traveling to other local schools in Germany, his home country, and giving presentations on the climate crisis and the benefits of planting trees—mobilizing the younger generation to join him. His advocacy evolved into what is now Planet, and the backbone of the movement remains its youth empowerment efforts.
“I think young people can make what’s at stake incredibly clear when we talk about the climate crisis,” Finkbeiner says. “It’s not an abstract problem or a long-term problem. It’s something that affects people right now, and it’s going to affect us for the rest of our lives. I think many of our young ambassadors get that message across explicitly, and therefore, they inspire adults to do more to fight the climate crisis.”
Finkbeiner and his team continue to rally young people in cities around the world through Planet’s academies, one-day workshops that teach kids why forests are so important, what the climate crisis is, and what can be done about it. Participants learn how to plant trees and present plans on how they’re going to help their communities reduce their carbon emissions to crowds of parents. Once they complete the workshop, they are certified as climate justice ambassadors.
“When children come to the academies, they become like seeds,” explains Paulina Sanchez, Planet’s Mexican ambassador. Sanchez has worked with the organization for more than a decade, after joining Planet in 2010 as a translator for Finkbeiner’s conferences, and currently oversees corporate partnerships. “We get to find the seed in their hearts, for their activism, and then watch them become amazing trees. Then we have a beautiful forest of climate activists and justice ambassadors, and we can build and restore our future. It just brings me endless hope.”
Sanchez knows firsthand how formative it can be to have support from adults as a young person entering the fight against the climate crisis. “I was only able to commit to Plant-for-the-Planet so profoundly because I had so much support from adults, starting with my mom,” she says. “She was, and still is, the person who enabled me to become a climate justice ambassador. Her support allowed me to believe I could do this work myself.”
When children come to the academies, they
become like seeds. We get to find the seed in
their hearts, for their activism, and then watch them become amazing trees. Then we have a beautiful forest of climate activists and justice ambassadors, and we can build
and restore our future.”
Technology plays an important part in Planet’s mission. It provides nonprofits with a ready-made platform for fundraising, planning plantings, and organizing donations—while providing the organization with crucial visibility into groups’ activities. In addition to GPS tools and drone imagery for mapping, Planet built TreeMapper, an app that allows the team to monitor and track newly planted forests over time. Every time a nonprofit group plants trees, the exact location and species is logged. Weeks, months, and years later, the team can return to those sites to measure and analyze how the trees have developed.
A movement with multiple branches
When taking on the monumental challenge of saving the planet, adults play a key role in supporting the activism of young people. They provide a steady source of motivation that ultimately propels Plant-for-the-Planet’s operation.
What gives me hope is to see children, families, and whole communities coming together to fight the climate crisis,” says Samantha Davalos, restoration projects evaluator at Planet. Davalos ensures that Planet projects are biologically and socially beneficial to the proposed communities—how many species of trees would be planted, the biodiversity being cultivated, and how the surrounding communities would be involved. “When communities are engaged, the residents usually have a better future, a better livelihood. And they get excited when we can show them tangible progress,” she adds.
In keeping with the movement, collaboration remains vital. “What’s really important is that all this data is transparent and accessible for anyone worldwide,” Finkbeiner explains. “Anyone can go to our website, look at our forests, and see how they’re developing for themselves.”
Additionally, Planet’s platform gives organizations the ability to offset their emissions by retiring Gold Standard (or similar) certificates, which supports the expansion of renewable energy sources, thereby improving the global energy mix. They can also partner with the organization to fund the planting of trees to grow a company forest.
Growing new roots in Campeche, Mexico
Although Planet’s tree-planting mission has evolved into a movement that spans countries, the organization has simultaneously focused its reforestation and restoration efforts on “biodiversity hotspots.” Comprising 2% of Earth’s surface area, these hotspots inhabit a multitude of wildlife species—and they’re under significant threat.
One such hotspot is Campeche, Mexico, on the Yucatán Peninsula. Despite being protected reserves, the tropical forests surrounding San Felipe Bacalar, Balam-Kú, and the ancient Mayan city of Calakmul have been destroyed over the past 20 years due to deforestation. Given that they encompass the largest forest mass in Mexico and the second largest remnant forest in Latin America, the risk this poses to the overall ecosystem is substantial.
“Campeche is among the states with the highest degree of deforestation,” says Sandra Martha Laffon Leal, Campeche’s secretary of environment, biodiversity, climate change, and energy at Mexico’s Governors’ Climate & Forests Task Force. The state’s main challenges are stopping deforestation, improving local environmental education, reducing pollution, and promoting sustainable use of natural resources.
Because Leal focuses on activating communities that live within these protected natural areas to see natural resources as a source of income—one that could improve quality of life and lead to better development, protection, and conversation of the reserves—Planet’s multipronged approach has done wonders.
“Having a team of partners to help us with conversation
and ecological restoration gives us great hope that we can integrate these resources and infrastructure from other entities and be more successful in our conservation efforts,” she says.
Planting seeds for the future
To date, more than 90,000 kids have participated in Planet’s academies, leading to climate justice ambassadors in 75 countries. Finkbeiner and his team have spoken in front of the UN and regularly attend international climate conferences. In addition to the tens of millions of trees that have been donated through its platform for restoration projects globally, the organization has planted 10 million trees in Campeche, Mexico, and another 9 million in other parts of the country—and it’s just getting started.
“There’s a big jewel of opportunity in empowering children,” notes Sanchez. “If we instill these topics early, young people will actually adopt this knowledge. It’ll be the core of their action-taking. When you see in children’s faces how convinced they are that they can truly do something good for a global community—as an adult, that’s my forever fuel. Seeing that drive is what inspires me to keep going, to keep doing this work.”
Listen to Samantha Davalos on how Plant-for-the-Planet’s platform empowers communities.
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MEET THE ECOPRENEUR:
Felix Finkbeiner of Plant-for-the-Planet.
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Read More
BEHIND THE SCENES: Episode 9 of The Ecopreneurs in Mexico.
Read More
Read More
EXPLAINER: See why Plant-for-the-Planet is planting 1 trillion trees for a greener future.
Explore More
Climate Justice Ambassador, Plant-for-the-Planet Mexico
PAULINA SANCHEZ
“
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How NFW is harnessing
the power of plants to reduce our reliance on plastics
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“I think young people can make what’s at stake incredibly clear when we talk about the climate crisis,” Finkbeiner says. “It’s not an abstract problem or a long-term problem. It’s something that affects people right now, and it’s going to affect us for the rest of our lives. I think many of our young ambassadors get that message across explicitly, and therefore, they inspire adults to do more to fight the climate crisis.”
Finkbeiner and his team continue to rally young people in cities around the world through Planet’s academies, one-day workshops that teach kids why forests are so important, what the climate crisis is, and what can be done about it. Participants learn how to plant trees and present plans on how they’re going to help their communities reduce their carbon emissions to crowds of parents. Once they complete the workshop, they are certified as climate justice ambassadors.
“When children come to the academies, they become like seeds,” explains Paulina Sanchez, Planet’s Mexican ambassador. Sanchez has worked with the organization for more than a decade, after joining Planet in 2010 as a translator for Finkbeiner’s conferences, and currently oversees corporate partnerships. “We get to find the seed in their hearts, for their activism, and then watch them become amazing trees. Then we have a beautiful forest of climate activists and justice ambassadors, and we can build and restore our future. It just brings me endless hope.”
Sanchez knows firsthand how formative it can be to have support from adults as a young person entering the fight against the climate crisis. “I was only able to commit to Plant-for-the-Planet so profoundly because I had so much support from adults, starting with my mom,” she says. “She was, and still is, the person who enabled me to become a climate justice ambassador. Her support allowed me to believe I could do this work myself.”
“I think young people can make what’s at stake incredibly clear when we talk about the climate crisis,” Finkbeiner says. “It’s not an abstract problem or a long-term problem. It’s something that affects people right now, and it’s going to affect us for the rest of our lives. I think many of our young ambassadors get that message across explicitly, and therefore, they inspire adults to do more to fight the climate crisis.”
Finkbeiner and his team continue to rally young people in cities around the world through Planet’s academies, one-day workshops that teach kids why forests are so important, what the climate crisis is, and what can be done about it. Participants learn how to plant trees and present plans on how they’re going to help their communities reduce their carbon emissions to crowds of parents. Once they complete the workshop, they are certified as climate justice ambassadors.
“When children come to the academies, they become like seeds,” explains Paulina Sanchez, Planet’s Mexican ambassador. Sanchez has worked with the organization for more than a decade, after joining Planet in 2010 as a translator for Finkbeiner’s conferences, and currently oversees corporate partnerships. “We get to find the seed in their hearts, for their activism, and then watch them become amazing trees. Then we have a beautiful forest of climate activists and justice ambassadors, and we can build and restore our future. It just brings me endless hope.”
Sanchez knows firsthand how formative it can be to have support from adults as a young person entering the fight against the climate crisis. “I was only able to commit to Plant-for-the-Planet so profoundly because I had so much support from adults, starting with my mom,” she says. “She was, and still is, the person who enabled me to become a climate justice ambassador. Her support allowed me to believe I could do this work myself.”
Humankind has run up a debt to nature it simply cannot service. Plastics will never be circular enough. Fortunately, the solution to the problem has already been invented: It’s called plants.”
MEET THE ECOPRENEUR: Felix Finkbeiner
of Plant-for-the-Planet.
The planet-saving potential of trees
