28 September 2019: Seven young people from Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation have released the ‘Plant-for-the-Planet App’, which allows anyone to plant trees around the world with only a few clicks. The App is part of the Trillion Tree Campaign, which is contributing to global reforestation and climate mitigation efforts.

The Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation aims to plant 100 million trees by 2030 through a project in the Yucatan-Peninsula. The Foundation realized that 10,000 projects of that size could restore a trillion trees; they therefore focused on sharing their tools with other projects to help scale up reforestation efforts. The app is one result of this effort. The lead developer, Sagar Aryal, who is 24, has been planting trees with Plant-for-the-Planet for more than ten years, as one of 81,000 youth from 73 countries. Aryal said she developed the app with “Wangari Maathai in mind.”

UNEP Executive Director, Inger Andersen, said wide-spread restoration “requires us to reach out to large numbers of people, cost-effectively and quickly.”

Users can choose to donate to 50 hand-selected reforestation projects from developing countries. The App directs 100% of the money raised to the tree planters and users can see where their donated trees were planted and gift donated trees to others. In the future, the team plans to add additional reforestation projects to the App. Over 10,000 people signed up to the App in its development phase.

Wangari Maathai and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) launched Plant-for-the-Planet in January 2007, as part of the Billion Tree Campaign, which has now transformed into the Trillion Tree Campaign. UNEP Executive Director, Inger Andersen, said wide-spread restoration “requires us to reach out to large numbers of people, cost-effectively and quickly.” She said Apps like Plant-for-the-Planet can “go a long way in boosting nature-based solutions for climate action, livelihoods and sustainability.”

The 2.0 version will include a feature that enables users to watch donated forests grow using satellite images. [UNEP Press Release] [Plant-for-the-Planet Web App]