Every September, Roots & Shoots groups around the world mark the UN International Day of Peace on 21 September. Dr. Jane Goodall (1934-2025) was appointed as a UN Messenger of Peace in 2002, and she continues to inspire us all to live in harmony with nature and each other.
This year’s International Day of Peace carries extraordinary meaning for the Roots & Shoots network. Dr. Jane Goodall’s lifelong commitment to peace, compassion, and hope made International Day of Peace one of the causes closest to her heart. It also marks 35 years since she founded Roots & Shoots — the programme she started, now made up of thousands of young people and community members across the globe who have taken her belief in individual action and turned it into something lasting.
This year’s campaign brings those two milestones together: a tribute to Dr. Jane’s legacy, and a celebration of what the network she built has achieved. Every Roots & Shoots project, however small, is a step toward a future in which people, animals, and the environment can live in peace together — and this Peace Day is a chance to recognise this across the whole global network.
Dr. Jane sent the world a message for the International Day of Peace nearly every year. In 2020, she put it as simply as she put most things: “Treat others as you would like to be treated.” In 2022, she reminded us that “we are all part of one human family” — that peace begins with recognising what connects us, not what divides us.
This International Day of Peace, we invite groups to explore: what does peace mean in our community? The answer may look different from one community to the next. For some groups, peace may mean inclusion, kindness and stronger relationships. For others, it may mean caring for animals, restoring nature, supporting vulnerable people, building understanding across cultures, or creating opportunities for young people to be heard.
A few guiding questions to start the conversation: Where do we experience peace? What challenges peace in our community? Who needs to be heard? How can young people become peace builders? How can we create peace for people, animals and nature?
We encourage groups to come together to discuss, explore and express what peace means in their local context, and then take action that helps strengthen peace for animals, for people, and for the environment.
Creative expression has always been part of Roots & Shoots Peace Day celebrations, and it’s the centrepiece of this year’s campaign. Groups are encouraged to use art, music, dance, poetry, storytelling, photography, discussion, performance or any other creative form to share their vision of peace and inspire others.
That spirit is at the heart of “Do One Thing (DOT) for Peace,” a new partnership with GAIA Kids that invites Roots & Shoots groups to explore peace through art in whatever form fits their group. DOT for Peace is one of several activities in the updated 2026 Resource Guide, which groups can use to plan their own Peace Day activities this year.
Contributions come together in a collective virtual Peace Art Gallery, which you can already view on the Roots & Shoots website.
Peace Day postcards. A new postcard was designed by a Roots & Shoots youth who shared his story at the Roots & Shoots Youth Conference in Japan. Inspired by Dr. Jane’s own habit of writing letters to people she met around the world, the postcard invites you to think of someone you care about and write to them.
Origami peace doves. JGI Germany and JGI Japan have both put together tutorials for folding origami peace doves, and the original video clip from JGI Japan is available to share with your group as well.
However you choose to mark International Day of Peace this year — whether through an art piece, a folded dove, a postcard sent to someone you care about, or a project of your own — share it back with us through the Tapestry of Hope so it can become part of the virtual Peace Day Art Gallery. It’s how a single action in one community becomes visible as part of something much bigger: thousands of people, in dozens of countries, working for peace for animals, for people, and for the environment, all on the same day.
However you celebrate, we hope you’ll share it with the global Roots & Shoots community and feel connected to everyone taking action for peace this September — in their communities, with their families, and within themselves.
Image Credits: JGI France/ Roots & Shoots Germany | Großes für Kleines / R&S USA| Antonia Castro / R&S Spain
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