Wiki Club SATI/Events/World Environment Day 2026

−14 days to Medicinal Tree Mapping Campaign ends
Update

Medicinal Tree Mapping Campaign on World Environment Day 2026

The Medicinal Tree Mapping Campaign (Medic Tree Mapping Campaign), launching on World Environment Day 2026, is a community-driven effort to document trees with traditional medicinal value, particularly those recognised through local and indigenous knowledge. Rather than photographing every tree, this campaign emphasises quality over quantity, encouraging contributions that reflect cultural significance, biodiversity relevance, and intergenerational collaboration.

By combining the digital skills of youth with the ancestral wisdom of elders, we aim to preserve and geo-map vital botanical knowledge on platforms like Wikimedia Commons and OpenStreetMap. For example, discovering an Ackee tree from West Africa growing in India is not only rare but culturally and medicinally meaningful, and worth documenting.

This initiative supports open knowledge, visual documentation, and the power of storytelling. It aligns with WikiProject Plants, WikiProject Alternative Medicine, and relevant Wikidata entries, reminding us of the Ayurvedic wisdom that no plant is truly useless. Every tree holds a story worth sharing.

Medicinal Tree Map is live now

About World Environment Day 2026

#WorldEnvironmentDay is led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Plastic pollution is now found in every part of our planet—even inside our bodies as microplastics. World Environment Day 2026 calls for collective action to end plastic pollution.

By drawing inspiration from nature and showcasing real-world solutions, the campaign urges individuals, organizations, and governments to adopt sustainable practices that drive systemic change.

This year’s event is especially significant as it precedes a global negotiation on a treaty to end plastic pollution. Join the #BeatPlasticPollution movement—because together we can create a healthier future.

About the Event

On the occasion of World Environment Day 2026, this online session invites youth contributors and Wiki Club members to document and upload photos of medicinal trees found in their city or surroundings to Wikimedia Commons.

Vat/ Bargad (Ficus benghalensis) in India
Nakayima tree in Uganda (Embuga ya Nakayima)
Neem (Azadirachta indica) in India
Bigtooth maple??? (Acer grandidentatum Nutt.) in Uzbekistan
Amaltas (Cassia fistula)
Peregrina (Jatropha integerrima) in Indonesia

Participants will learn

The importance of documenting local biodiversity
How to take and upload photographs of medicinal trees to Commons
Best practices for categorization and description
Aligning contributions with the global theme: #BeatPlasticPollution

Who Can Participate

This session is open to:

Wikimedians/Members of Wiki Clubs
Youth interested in contributing to open knowledge
Anyone passionate about the environment and Wikimedia

Use Category: Medic Tree Mapping on WED 2026

Future Plans

Following this event, we plan to create a collaborative Medicinal Trees Map using Open Street Map (OSM) and geotagged images from Wikimedia Commons. This map will help visualize and share local knowledge about the distribution of medicinal trees in different regions.