Amma addresses the Trillion Tree Campaign

March 9, 2018 – Monaco, Europe

A vow has been taken today by people from all over the world to do everything possible to inspire the planting of one trillion trees. A gathering to launch the Trillion Tree Campaign was held in Monaco. Amma sent a video message along with AYUDH Europe (our youth wing) and Embracing the World representatives who attended.

“Forests play the most important role in maintaining nature’s harmony,” Amma said. “Each country should try to protect its remaining forests and plant as many trees as possible. Individually, we should each make a vow to plant one tree a month so that in a year, each person would plant 12 trees.”

Other first signatories of the Trillion Tree Declaration include Prince Albert II of Monaco; Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change; Matt Harris, President of the Arbor Day Foundation; Tom Crowther of Crowther Lab, responsible for the science behind the Trillion Tree Campaign; Christian Kroll, Founder of Ecosia - a search engine that plants trees; Patricia Zurita, CEO of BirdLife International; His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa; and Founder of Plant-for-the-Planet, Felix Finkbeiner.

It was Felix who started this idea in Germany in 2007 when he was just nine years old. It came from a project he had to do for school. Inspired by Wangari Maathai, who planted 30 million trees in Africa in 30 years, he formulated his vision: children could plant one million trees in every country on earth. They could offset CO2 emissions all on their own while adults were only talking about it.

To the surprise of all, children from a hundred countries answered Felix’s call and founded the child and youth initiative Plant-for-the-Planet. The million tree per country goal has been passed, and so the goal expands.