UNESCO Green Citizens

Around the globe, citizens are putting local solutions in place to save our planet. These solutions are not only innovating, they are also replicable and capable to make a difference.

Saving the Earth with concrete actions

Let’s save life together

Preserving a forest, protecting ancestral know-how, helping out a whole ecosystem… concrete actions are being undertaken everywhere to save biodiversity.
To shed light on these amazing initiatives, as well as to inspire and connect all citizens that are ready to take action, UNESCO is launching a new project, UNESCO Green Citizens.
Each year, 100 projects are selected by a jury of experts to be part of "UNESCO Green Citizens" around 5 great themes: biodiversity, oceans, hydrology, education to sustainable development, local and indigenous know-how.

Klorane Botanical Foundation, a founding partner of UNESCO Green Citizens, supports these initiatives.

Biodiversity

Manoel do Carmo - Brazil

He protects biodiversity in an area threatened by deforestation. Sharing knowledge between communities to live together, in harmony with the forest.

Credit : A. Spani

Oceans

Victorien Erussard - France

He’s imagined a 100% autonomous ship, the first zero-emission hydrogen ship. Its energy comes from nature only: wind, sun, water and green hydrogen produced and stored onboard.

Credit : © Energy Observer Productions - Francine Kreiss

Hydrology

Saskia Studer / Francis Zoet / Anne Marieke Eveleens / Philip Ehrhorn - Netherlands

They have built a new technology to fight pollution in rivers and oceans. A bubble barrier holds back plastic for it to be later gathered. 86% of plastic litter is intercepted.

Credit : The Great Bubble by Barrier

Education to sustainable development

Coumba Dady Ka - Senegal

She is responsible for the shared garden dedicated to women in the heart of the Great Green Wall. They find new autonomy by cultivating and selling their products.

Credit : A. Spani

Local and indigenous know-how

Lama et Rabee - Jordan

They are reviving wheat culture, which key to Jordanian identity but judged to lack profitability. The farmers are getting to grips with ancestral know-how while increasing their revenue by developing agrotourism.

A unique platform to inspire and take action

All these actions are gathered on a dedicated digital platform. It is a place that offers them visibility while encouraging exchanges, experience sharing, communication and creation. An ideal place to share information between both local populations and international actors.

Each project can bring people together and play a role in making states of mind and behaviours evolve as regards sustainable development.

This long-term project is conceived to let everyone know about the power local actions can have. It will also allow wills to gather, to reinforce civil actions for the planet.

Discover the Unesco Green Citizens website

An exclusive series of thematic podcasts

Recorded in the heart of the Namib Desert, in the Sierra Gorda in Mexico, in the Bahamas, in the heart of an urban forest in Australia and the Al Hoceima National Park in Morocco... listeners are invited to immerse themselves in the local environment of project leaders.

Accompanied by 5 UNESCO experts, they share with us their struggle to fight against climate change and explain the challenges in their area of commitment.

Journey into biodiversity:

UNESCO biodiversity expert Maria Rosa Cardenas, and project owner Martha “Pati” Ruiz Corzo, present the Sierra Gorda alliance, which has simultaneously advanced economic development and biodiversity conservation in Mexico.

Saving the corals:

UNESCO expert Fanny Douvere and Coral Vita’s project owner Sam Teicher talk about the importance of saving the world's corals.

At the forest school:

UNESCO biodiversity expert Meriem Bouamrane and project owner Grey Coupland invite us to understand why it's important to save forests and preserve biodiversity in Australia.

Fishermen, guardians of the sea:

UNESCO expert Francesca Santoro and project owner Houssine Nibani present a prime example of the preservation of marine ecosystems in Morocco.

Learning in the desert:

UNESCO expert Bernard Combes and project owner Viktoria Keding talk about protecting the desert and the importance of environmental education.

A series of 5 thematic podcasts produced by Radio France in collaboration with UNESCO and Klorane Botanical Foundation, founding partner of UNESCO Green Citizens.

Founding partner since 2015

Together since 2015

UNESCO Green Citizens puts citizens at the heart of the action on their territory. It will inspire other citizens and help other projects multiply on all continents. This is the reason we have chosen to support this UNESCO project from the beginning.

Our UNESCO Green Citizens actions

Two of the projects supported by our foundation are recognized as "UNESCO Green Citizens". The first one is that of Coumba Dady Ka in Senegal, who created shared gardens for women in the heart of the Great Green Wall. The second one is Manoël’s, in Brazil: through farming cupuaçu following agroforestry principles, it allows a whole community to live better while protecting the Amazonian forest.