By Harry de Quetteville

At first glance, Felix Finkbeiner does not seem cut from the cloth with which celebrity is fashioned.

While some adolescent boys can induce hysterical adulation in young girls, Felix, 13, is no Justin Bieber. His stringbean physique is complemented by a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and a pudding-bowl haircut. And yet, on a wet Sunday afternoon in southern Germany, he finds himself besieged by a gaggle of young female devotees.

'I really like Felix,’ one delighted 11-year-old, Emilia Georgiev, says, beaming as she shows off his autograph.

Felix is neither child actor, pop star, nor sports prodigy. Instead, Emilia and girls like her want him to sign their copy of his book, Tree by Tree. Felix, from the unremarkable town of Pöcking, near Munich, is an environmental superstar at the helm of a global network of child activists whose aim is to mitigate climate change by reforesting the planet. Behind his apparently unprepossessing facade, Felix is really an action hero. No wonder he gets the girls.

His organisation, Plant for the Planet, recently achieved its target of planting one million trees in Germany; now, Felix is spreading his message around the world. Plant for the Planet is up and running in 131 countries, and the British chapter was established last month, with the aim of planting a million trees here over the next few years. Individuals or planting groups can either 'pledge’ to plant a certain number of trees or make a cash donation – €1 buys one tree.

read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/8476747/The-13-year-old-who-has-the-world-planting-trees.html