Aadya Joshi wants to see more biodiversity initiatives

Seventeen-year-old Aadya Joshi from Mumbai, India won the Children’s Climate Prize 2020. Her BioPower Index supports landscape architects, gardeners and authorities in sowing the plants that best support biodiversity. Since her win, new opportunities have opened up and Aadya is now looking for more people who want to establish and share knowledge about the importance of planting native.

Deforestation is the second largest cause of climate change. But randomly planting new trees can sometimes do more harm than good. Seventeen-year-old Aadya Joshi therefore founded The Right Green and developed a database with a BioPower Index showing which plants best support biodiversity in different plant zones. For some time, Aadya had also tried to get in touch with potential partners in order to start a large educational program on the subject, a dream that has now become reality thanks to the attention generated by the prize awarded to her for The Right Green. Together with a large media house in India, Aadya has now been able to run a program for 700 schools in the Mumbai region, a nature superhero competition, where students have been able to submit pictures of different tree species from their area and describe why native plants are important to them. The winners have then been given the opportunity to run their own workshops at their schools, with The Right Green providing them with education and material.

"There is a great deal of interest in protecting one's ecosystems, and a genuine need. The Right Green organization is just one example. I hope more people are inspired by it and apply it to more countries around the world," says Aadya Joshi.

Aadya also highlights the importance of coming into contact with leaders and those in power to raise the issue of why it is important to have healthy ecosystems.

"As the winner of the Children’s Climate Prize, I was given the chance to talk at the India International Science Fair and it was a very big moment for me. India’s prime minister was there as well as all the heads of the scientific departments in the government. Talking to all these people, especially people in power, means a lot because they actually have the opportunity to use the information and make a difference."

The Indian government is now investing heavily in a tree planting initiative and plans to sow one billion trees in the country during a particular period. Aadya is following the project closely as India is a country with such a diverse ecosystem, a fact that needs to be considered when planting. The vision for The Right Green going forward is to primarily expand throughout all of India, but in the long term, also to more countries. For this to be possible, Aadya highlights that not only are more resources needed, but also local activists who can disseminate knowledge of the importance of planting native species to support biodiversity in their countries. We look forward to hearing more about Aadya’s project going forward.