Plant-for-the-Planet

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Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation
logo
legal form Foundation, endowment
founding 2011
founder Frithjof Finkbeiner and Felix Finkbeiner
Seat Uffing am Staffelsee GermanyGermanyGermany 
sales 6,831,556 euros (2019)
Foundation capital 926,000 euros (2017)
Website www.plant-for-the-planet.org

Plant-for-the-Planet (German: "Plants for the Planet") is a foundation that was founded in February 2007 by the then nine-year-old Felix Finkbeiner as a children and youth initiative and primarily addresses children and young people. The Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation was founded in 2011. Its aim is to create awareness of global justice and the climate crisis among children and adults and to counter the latter through tree-planting campaigns.

Felix Finkbeiner was inspired by the project "The Billion Tree Campaign" ("The Billion Trees Campaign") to found it. This project was run by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the Prince Albert Foundation of Monaco and the African Green Belt Movement . It was under the patronage of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai and Prince Albert II. In 2011, it was transferred to Plant-for-the-Planet for continuation. The original goal of motivating people to plant a billion trees was exceeded even before the handover, which is why it is being continued with the goal of planting a trillion trees instead. Finkbeiner and his foundation are working with the Zurich-based environmental scientist Tom Crowther .

Emergence

On March 22, 2007, an action in support of the UNEP campaign began at the Munich International School in Starnberg-Buchhof . For this purpose, the Global Marshall Plan Initiative under Frithjof Finkbeiner made the website plant-for-the-planet.org and a million flyers available, which were packed by the students and sent to 7000 schools. According to the project website, the initiative was launched by Finkbeiner's nine-year-old son, Felix Finkbeiner. Felix Finkbeiner received the decisive impetus for the idea that later led to the foundation of the foundation when he was preparing a lecture for the class on the topic of the climate crisis . In his presentation, Felix Finkbeiner is said to have developed the idea that children could plant a million trees in every country. As a result of the presentation, the first tree was planted on March 28, 2007 at Felix Finkbeiner's school and the campaign was advertised. After a year around 150,000 trees had been planted in Germany.

development

The original goal of the UN campaign, namely to collect donations for one billion trees in one year, was achieved after only five months. The corresponding number of trees had been planted by November 2017. By the end of January, the number of tree donations rose to 2.38 billion and that of the trees planted to around 1.8 billion. By then, people in 163 countries had already participated in the campaign. Among other things, scout organizations in 20 countries took up the campaign. The World Scout Organization provided a patch with the Plant-for-the-Planet logo. In Germany, in some places, including Hamburg and Stuttgart , children got together and said they would want to plant 100,000 trees in their community or a million trees in their country. More than 100 children from 53 countries assured the organization of their support and announced that they also wanted to plant trees in their country. Children from 93 countries around the world are now taking part. The goal is to plant 1,000 billion trees worldwide, of which over 13 billion have been planted and over a billion more have been promised.

On September 21, 2009, Felix Finkbeiner met Wangari Maathai in New York at the invitation of UNEP at a press conference during the UN General Assembly. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate had made a name for herself in her home country of Kenya because she had proclaimed the so-called “Green Belt Movement” and in 2006 the “Billion Tree Campaign”. This gathering in New York City marks the start of a close collaboration within the framework of the “Billion Tree Campaign”, of which Prince Albert of Monaco is the patron. Felix Finkbeiner also presented his “Stop talking. Start planting ”presented.

The movement took on a new dimension on December 7, 2011. As part of the UN climate conference in Durban , UNEP transferred responsibility for the “UN Billion Tree Campaign” to the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation. This means that the more than twelve billion trees planted as part of the campaign were also included in the tree counter.

On September 28, 2019, at the Global Landscape Forum in New York City, the foundation published an app that is open to everyone who is committed to tree planting and forest protection. The online version followed a year later, which can be integrated into their websites as a white label application by cooperating companies who want to join the organization's goal. The software company Salesforce.com was the first to take over this as part of its “1t.org” campaign.

Jakob Blasel announced in an interview with Spiegel in April 2019 that the financial processing of the German branch of the “ Fridays for Future ” movement (“FFFD”) is being carried out by the Plant-for-the-Planet foundation, which is responsible for the account management and Handling of financial transactions for FFFD. FFFD does not want to build up huge bureaucratic structures with the founding of associations, board elections, hierarchies "and too much paperwork", but rather fight as a "community movement of young people against the climate crisis". After several cooperation partners put their partnership with Plant-for-the-Planet on hold or distanced themselves completely in 2021 due to newspaper reports, the Fridays for Future website only speaks of "a well-known NGO" that manages the funds .

Cooperations

Collaboration with Crowther Lab

In 2013, Plant-for-the-Planet asked Tom Crowther, who was then a postdoc in ecology at Yale University, to do a study of the world's trees. The aim was to check how many trees there were already on earth and how many still had room. On September 2, 2015, Crowther published the results of the study in the journal "Nature".

The study showed that there were once around six trillion trees on earth, of which around three trillion remain. According to his estimates, there would still be room for around 1.2 trillion trees. Felix Finkbeiner saw the goal of the “Trillion Tree Campaign”, which he had proclaimed in his UN speech, scientifically confirmed. Plant-for-the-Planet then applied for research funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 2016, which was to be used to set up an independent chair under the direction of Tom Crowther in order to be able to continue the studies that had begun. The BMZ approved the funding application submitted in 2016 for a “Global Research Group for Climate Justice” with a term of three years, which in 2017 led to the founding of the Crowther Lab. In 2019, Tom Crowther and his team showed in a follow-up study where in the world forests could be restored and what effect this could have on the climate crisis. The study was presented at the federal press conference in the presence of the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Gerd Müller.

UN Decade for the Restoration of Ecosystems

Plant-for-the-Planet is a Supporting Partner of the "UN Decade On Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030" , which will take place on June 5, 2021 with the aim of making society more aware of environmental issues, started.

Other partners

The children are supported by adults in achieving their goals: the former Federal Environment Minister Klaus Töpfer is the patron. The AVINA Foundation, the Club of Rome and the Global Marshall Plan Foundation support the campaign in terms of content and other companies financially.

Campaigns and Actions

Tree planting campaigns

Ambassador for climate justice from Plant-for-the-Planet at a tree-planting campaign during the climate summit in Cancun , Mexico (2010)

Since the beginning of the initiative, children have organized their own tree-planting events in their communities, so-called “planting parties”. This is done entirely on one's own initiative, i. H. Schoolchildren speak to foresters or environmental organizations who provide the seedlings and take on forest pedagogical lessons and the care of the trees. In Germany, in cooperation with the BUND , children complete the connecting paths to a 20,000 km long wildcat path and deal with biodiversity. The tree-planting campaigns are financed exclusively by donations, both from private individuals and companies.

For example, in 2019, in cooperation with Volksbank Wittgenstein eG, children called for donations via the crowdfunding platform “Many create more”, thus collecting several hundred euros for environmental protection. Together with the “Grün und Gruga” department of the city of Essen, 70 schoolchildren planted a total of 230 silver firs in the forest park on the Schillerwiese in the same year as a symbol of climate protection. A further 12,000 trees were replanted by Plant-for-the-Planet Aschaffenburg eV after a large fundraising campaign in the Alzenau Forest, after the low "Bernd" left a lot of damage in the forest in 2019.

Reforestation project in Mexico

For one euro, Plant-for-the-Planet guarantees the planting of a tree in its own project on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. According to the company's own statements, the afforestation is certified by auditors and can be viewed by everyone on the homepage. In connection with scientific research, this project also serves as a blueprint for the partner projects registered by Plant-for-the-Planet, such as Plant-for-the-Planet Ghana and Plant-for-the-Planet Ethiopia.

According to the organization, 6.3 million trees were planted on its area of ​​20,000 hectares between 2015 and 2020. 124 employees are involved in the afforestation, including: Planters, nursery technicians, ecologists, forest engineers and mechanics.

Since January 2020, a 90 hectare research area has been operated in cooperation with ETH Zurich and Imperial College London.

Plant-for-the-Planet Academies

In their own academies, children train other children to become ambassadors for climate justice . There they should learn relevant facts and representation options. As ambassadors for climate justice, they should then carry the idea of ​​planting trees and the goal of climate justice into their schools and to their friends and acquaintances.

In February 2010, the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation was established as a trust foundation and converted into a legal foundation in 2011. In further cooperation with the partners, the foundation is to coordinate the work and activities of the children and thus replace the Global Marshall Plan Foundation, which was previously responsible for the secretariat.

"Stop talking. Start planting. "

On September 21, 2009, during the UN General Assembly in New York, the global campaign “Stop talking. Start planting. ". It is intended to create awareness of the climate crisis in both children and adults . The photos of the campaign each show an “ambassador for climate justice” covering a prominent person's mouth. Celebrities who support this campaign are, for example, Prince Albert II of Monaco , Wangari Maathai , Peter Maffay , Gisele Bündchen , Hans Küng , Mary Robinson , Princess Haya of Jordan , Gesine Schwan , Achim Steiner , Oliver Kalkofe , Felipe of Spain , Martin Winterkorn and many more.

On October 8, 2010, the campaign received the EFFIE in the Social National / International category. The prize is awarded annually in 15 categories to honor non-profit associations and initiatives and their efficient social marketing communication.

In spring 2021, Plant-for-the-Planet started a Germany-wide print campaign with prominent faces from the TV industry, such as Willi Weitzel , Inka Schneider and Hannes Jaenicke . Willi Weitzel is also involved in the academies as part of the partnership with the Energizer company. The criticism of the campaign was eclipsed by Die Zeit und das Stern , May 2021.

criticism

At the beginning of 2019, Die Zeit published an article in which the published plant numbers and the methods used to determine them were questioned. It was criticized that the trees from the official UNEP “Billion Tree Campaign” were automatically recorded and not checked retrospectively. Even private individuals could report any number of trees planted to the “tree counter” launched by UNEP. Since 2021, all project-owned plantings have to be covered with geodata.

In 2020, Die Zeit renewed its criticism. Both the tree plantings given by Plant-for-the-Planet and their survival rate were given "unlikely" to be high. The chosen location for the tree planting was also criticized, as further planting would appear to make little ecological sense there. The concept of climate compensation as a whole was also called into question. Shutting down a coal-fired power plant makes more sense than planting trees. Fires also broke out on the area of ​​the foundation.

In 2021, the magazines Zeit and Stern again received critical reports. Based on previous publications, the star carries out its own research. The promises of Plant for the Planet are "too good to be true". Doubts have been raised about the survival rate of the trees and the choice of reforestation areas. The allegation is also made that the organizational structure of the Mexican subsidiary, to which the donations from Germany are transferred, is “not compatible with German laws”. It is criticized that the foundation only consists of the two founders, father and son Finkbeiner, and a Mexican entrepreneur. There are no committees, no supervisory bodies, but the possibility of passing on the donations to other non-profit organizations. The foundation then announced that it would have the statutes of the two non-profit organizations in Germany and Mexico checked by two international law firms, appointed an independent group of afforestation experts to accompany the work of its own team of scientists in the renaturation area and commissioned, among other things. the auditing company PKF with the certification of the Mexican annual financial statements and tree accounting.

In the course of the reporting, numerous partners decided to let the cooperation with Plant for the Planet rest or to end the support entirely, including the previous cooperation partner and major donor Gruner + Jahr ( Stern publisher) and the Center for Sustainable Management (ZNU) of the University of Witten / Herdecke , which described this decision as "inevitable" due to the doubts about the seriousness of Plant for the Planet. Furthermore, the Bitburger brewery group , the juice producer Eckes-Granini Group , the large corporation Procter & Gamble , the cheese manufacturer Hochland , the Munich PR agency Engel & Zimmermann, the food manufacturer Develey and the bicycle chain Lucky Bike either ended the collaboration or left it until further notice . According to the CEO of Develey, Michael Durach, who is even on the board of Plant for the Planet himself, this will be done until "credible and third-party verified evidence" is available.

In August 2021 a "transparency report" was linked on the Plant-for-the-Planet website. According to this report, all auditing firms commissioned issued an unqualified audit certificate with regard to the balance sheets, but advisory law firms see a need for optimization with regard to the articles of association and the composition of committees due to the dynamic development.

Awards

2009

2010

  • International Young Eco-Hero Award (USA) to Felix Finkbeiner
  • GWA Social Effie - Gold for “Stop talking. Start planting. "
  • 21st Century Superhero (Global Tolerance and UNESCO )

2011

  • Humanity4Water Award 2011 in the Polar Bear category
  • Success for Future Award 2011

2012

  • European University Social Responsibility Award 2012
  • sea ​​Award 2012 "for life's work"
  • Winspiration Award 2012
  • You and Peace Ecology 2012

2013

  • Citizen Culture Prize of the Bavarian State Parliament to Felix Finkbeiner
  • Hamburg Social Oscar 2012 silver
  • Climate Week Awards 2013 "Most inspirational young person"
  • Ekotopfilm 40th IFSDF 2013
  • One World Family Award 2013
  • Reineccius Medal

2014

  • Honorary Prize of the German Culture Prize

2015

2016

2017

  • Billion Acts Hero Award, Best Youth Act category

2018

  • Merit medal of the Federal Cross of Merit for Felix Finkbeiner
  • Stiftung Warentest : 1st place for the "Good Chocolate"

2020

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Foundation directory - PLANT-FOR-THE-PLANET FOUNDATION. Retrieved March 29, 2021 .
  2. ↑ Self-presentation “About Us” on the Plant-for-the-Planet website.
  3. ↑ Wangari Maathai: Carbon justice and forestation - the African perspective. Chapter 10 in Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Mario Molina, Nicholas Stern, Veronika Huber, Susanne Kadner: Global Sustainability: A Nobel Cause. Cambridge University Press, 2010, ISBN 9780521769341 .
  4. ^ UNEP brochure, Plant for the Planet The Billion Tree Campaign , January 2008.
  5. ↑ UNEP Billion Tree Campaign Hands Over to the Young People of the Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation , press release, December 7, 2011.
  6. ^ "Billion Tree Campaign" blossoms to seven times its size, UN agency says . Press release, May 13, 2008.
  7. ↑ Patrick Goymer (2018): A trillion trees. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2: 208-209 doi: 10.1038 / s41559-018-0464-z
  8. ↑ http://www.plant-for-the-planet.org:80/info.php ( Memento from March 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ UNEP brochure 2008 page 31 .
  10. ↑ https://www.trilliontreecampaign.org/. Accessed August 6, 2021 .
  11. ↑ Plant for The Planet: The Billion Tree Campaign. Retrieved August 25, 2021 .
  12. ↑ Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, Interdisciplinary Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability: Global sustainability: a Nobel cause . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-76934-1 ( worldcat.org [accessed August 25, 2021]).
  13. ↑ FOCUS Online: UN Climate Conference - The world needs new trees. Retrieved August 25, 2021 .
  14. ↑ Handover of the “UN Billion Tree Campaign” to Plant-for-the-Planet (PDF).
  15. ^ The Planetary Press: Plant for the Planet: New Tree Planting App Targets 1 Trillion Trees. September 30, 2019, Retrieved August 25, 2021 (American English).
  16. ↑ September 21, 2020: Salesforce Partners with Plant-for-the-Planet to Spotlight Global Reforestation Projects and Track Progress Towards 100 Million Tree Goal. September 21, 2020, accessed August 25, 2021 (American English).
  17. ↑ Claus Hecking: Fridays For Future: School protests targeted by right-wing blogs , mirror online from April 17, 2019, accessed on April 19, 2019.
  18. ↑ a b c Tin Fischer and Hannah Knuth: Plant for the Planet: From the dream of the cheap tree. ZEIT, accessed on May 8, 2021 .
  19. ↑ https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14967
  20. ↑ https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/19/193/1919327.pdf
  21. ↑ Thorsten Dambeck, DER SPIEGEL: Forests could offset two thirds of man-made CO2 pollution. Retrieved August 25, 2021 .
  22. ↑ Partners. Accessed August 25, 2021 .
  23. ↑ Tree planting and ecosystem restoration: a crash course. Retrieved August 25, 2021 .
  24. ↑ partnership. Plant-for-the-Planet, accessed January 18, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Children's academy with orchards. In: Volksbank Wittgenstein. Retrieved August 28, 2021 .
  26. ^ Yucatán renaturation. Retrieved August 25, 2021 .
  27. ↑ https://www.eurofins.com/eurofins-foundation/some-supported-projects/protecting-the-environment/imperial-college-london-uk/
  28. ↑ Academies. Plant-for-the-Planet, accessed January 18, 2019 .
  29. ↑ EFFIE Prize Winner 2010
  30. ↑ Stop talking. Start planting. Retrieved May 14, 2021 .
  31. ↑ Tin Fischer: Plant for the Planet: We planted 15 billion trees ... uh, not. In: The time . March 13, 2019, accessed August 6, 2021 .
  32. ↑ https://www1.plant-for-the-planet.org/. Accessed August 6, 2021 .
  33. ↑ TreeMapper App. Retrieved August 6, 2021 .
  34. ↑ Hannah Knuth, Tin Fischer: Plant for the Planet: Der Märchenwald. In: Zeit.de . December 16, 2020, accessed December 16, 2020 .
  35. ↑ a b Foundation “Plant for the Planet”: Partners from science and industry turn away. In: Stern.de. G + J Medien GmbH, accessed on May 8, 2021 .
  36. ↑ Joachim Rienhardt: Critique of Plant for the Planet: Confidence Sinked. In: Stern.de. G + J Medien GmbH, April 28, 2021, accessed on May 13, 2021 .
  37. ↑ Plant-for-the-Planet Review: Next Steps. April 29, 2021, accessed July 1, 2021 .
  38. ↑ Annual Reports. Retrieved August 25, 2021 (American English).
  39. ^ Bavarian State Medal for Services to the Environment
  40. ↑ BAUM e. V. Special award to Felix Finkbeiner
  41. ↑ Action for Nature: Felix Finkbeiner, First Place, Age 12, Germany ( Memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  42. ^ Social Effie [1]
  43. ↑ Global Tolerance 21th Century Superhero ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  44. ↑ Finkbeiner Humanity4Water Award category: Polar Bear ( Memento from February 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  45. ↑ Success for Future Award Green Youngster Award
  46. ↑ Euroni.edu (page 6) ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  47. ↑ Sea Award: Sea of ​​Excellence ( Memento from February 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  48. ↑ Winspiration Day. February 1, 2013, accessed August 6, 2021 .
  49. ^ You and Peace Ecology Felix Finkbeiner
  50. ↑ Bayerischer Rundfunk: Felix Finkbeiner receives Citizen Culture Prize ( Memento from March 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), from December 5, 2013.
  51. ↑ Alster magazine silver for Plant-for-the-Planet
  52. ↑ Climate Week Awards 2013 Most inspirational young person ( Memento from February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  53. ↑ Honor of Ekotopfilm
  54. ↑ One World Family Award: Review One World Family Days - Award ( Memento from February 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  55. ↑ City Steinheim: www.steinheim.de
  56. ↑ Honorary Prize German Culture Prize 2014 - Felix Finkbeiner In: stiftung-kulturfoerderung.de of February 14, 2014
  57. ↑ 1000 billion trees for our future: The magazine Reader's Digest honors the 17-year-old activist Felix Finkbeiner as “European of the year 2015” In: presseportal.de from January 20, 2015
  58. ↑ Winner Steiger Award: http://der-steiger-award.com/preistraeger ( Memento from June 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) . Retrieved July 13, 2017
  59. ^ JCI: Felix Finkbeiner of Germany Selected as One of the 2016 JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World. In: www.jci.cc. Archived from the original on November 5, 2016 ; Retrieved November 5, 2016 .
  60. ↑ Sauti Kuu Act Now Jugend Award, 2016 winners: http://www.actnow-award.de/preisverleihung.html . Retrieved July 13, 2017
  61. ↑ German Sustainability Award: Home. Retrieved March 29, 2021 .
  62. ↑ 2017 Hero Awards | Billion Acts. July 14, 2017, accessed March 29, 2021 .
  63. ↑ The Federal President / Press Releases / Federal President Steinmeier honors committed democrats with the Order of Merit on Constitution Day. Retrieved May 8, 2021 .
  64. ↑ Stiftung Warentest Schokolade: An excerpt from the test results. In: merkur.de . November 24, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2018 .
  65. ↑ Award goes to Alexis Tsipras, Zoran Zaev and Plant-for-the-Planet , announcement of the Economic Society for Westphalia and Lippe (WWL), accessed on August 26, 2021