Teen Ellyanne Wanjiku Chlystun is on a mission to plant more trees

A 14-year-old girl from Kenya is known around the world for saving the planet, meeting the likes of King Charles and working with Grammy winner Meggie Alabi and former soccer star David Beckham to fight climate change.

At just four years old, Ellyanne Wanjiku Chlystun was inspired by Kenya’s most famous tree planter, Nobel Prize winner Professor Wangari Maathai, to take action to solve the problem.

“I was doing a project in kindergarten on people who had made a difference in the world, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Florence Nightingale.

“However, it was Wangari Maathai, the amazing Kenyan woman who inspired me by planting millions of trees in her community to spread awareness about what tree planting can do and how Developing an understanding of a country or a continent,” Ellyanne told the BBC.

Professor Maathai argued that women, especially in rural areas, can improve the environment by planting trees to provide a source of fuel and slow down deforestation and desertification.

In 2004, she became the first black African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and is also known as the first “green” Nobel Prize winner.

Professor Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977.

Determined to follow in her footsteps, Ariana returns home to tell her mother, Dorothy, what she knows.

However, her mother – who was very familiar with Professor Maathai’s story, including her role as a political activist challenging the regime of then-President Daniel arap Moi – tried to dissuade her.

Recalling that conversation, Elian said: “I said I wanted to be like her [Prof Maathai]. But because my mother knew her situation and how she had been beaten, injured and jailed, she said, ‘No, it’s better to become a lawyer or a doctor and go to Harvard’.

However, the young child persisted until her mother agreed that she could emulate her hero.

“I remember eating oranges or lemons, and I put the seeds…in the soil and it started growing and sprouting,” Ellyanne added.

“I fell in love with what I was doing, so I grew more.”

This inspired her to learn about the science behind trees.

“Dr. Jane Njuguna of the Kenya Forestry Research Institute taught me about species-site matching, which is finding the right tree in the right area at the right time, using the right tools and the right soil,” she said.

With the help of her family, Ellyanne founded Children With Nature, a non-profit organization in 2017.

“Through Children With Nature, I want to teach children. Some of them don’t know how to make a difference in the areas where they live,” says Ellyanne.

She said she has personally planted about 250,000 trees in 2020, while also building a “community” of tree lovers – not just in Kenya but abroad – who have planted a total of about 1.3 million trees .

“I have planted trees all over the world in countries I have visited, including Uganda, Poland, the UK, Crater Lake in the USA, Zanzibar, Morocco and Zambia,” Ellyanne says, adding: “I have planted the most trees here in Kenya.”

Over the past three years, however, she has fallen behind on planting trees as she has been involved in other campaigns to combat climate change.

“I usually get sponsorships and work with various partners to fund travel. Brands can pay for tickets and hotels. As a kid, I couldn’t pay for tickets even though I got there,” Ellyanne added.

Talking about how she balances her time between going to school and being a world-traveling activist, the 14-year-old responded: “School is easy for me because I get good grades. I feel very proud of myself. Proud, I’m proud too.

She attended the 2023 climate summit in Dubai, met with the British monarch and gave a speech linking climate change to the waterborne disease malaria.

“As weather patterns change, malaria cases are increasing. In Kenya, where I live, malaria is showing up in new places we have never seen before,” Ellyanne told delegates.

She returns to this theme in a video released by British charity Malaria No More.

The film is directed by Alabi and stars Beckham, who is the film’s presenter. A dramatic illustration of the impact of climate change.

“Angry suns, erratic skies, tornadoes, cosmic floods, thirsty lands, falling trees — these are the perfect storms for spreading disease,” Elian says in the film.

She also stars alongside children from other parts of the world in Save Our Wildlife, a documentary produced by Sky News and Sky Kids that explores the impact of climate change on animals.

The film was nominated in the children’s category at the Wildscreen Panda Awards, known as the Oscars of wildlife film and television, which are currently being held in Bristol, UK.

In the film, Ariana reports on her favorite animal – elephants – and says droughts caused by climate change now pose a greater threat to their survival than poaching.

Although she has dabbled in filming, she told the BBC she is still passionate about planting trees and plans to take up the job again.

“My biggest dream is to plant trees in the green belt of Africa,” said Elian, referring to Initiative to stop the spread of the Sahara Desert Planting trees from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east.

By the time she turns 18, she hopes to be the “catalyst” for planting 1 trillion trees around the world – a goal she believes is achievable.

“I grew up believing that anything was possible, especially for me as a young person.

“See what Gen Z is doing in KenyaOut of resilience, they managed to cancel the entire finance bill and sack the entire cabinet,” she added, giving a glimpse into the political leanings of her hero Professor Maathai.

But she expressed no intention of starting a political career like Professor Maathai. She said: “I want to graduate from primary school, then go to high school, and then go to university. I want to specialize in economics, that’s for sure.”