Sebastião (Sebas) Mendonça
Portugal & The Netherlands, 20
He/Him
Project: Trovador
After watching wildfires devastate Portugal’s forests, Sebas discovered that much of the worst-hit land was too steep, dangerous, and costly for human crews to reach. He created Trovador – the world’s first autonomous tree-planting robot – designed to regenerate fire-scarred terrain beyond the reach of conventional methods. Guided by precision sensors, Trovador makes large-scale reforestation viable on steep slopes that comprise a large share of Mediterranean forests and have long been considered unrecoverable. Trovador has been recognized by the World Wildlife Fund, and Sebas was named the youngest Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree from Portugal. He also runs international STEM and restoration programs for students and contributes to global policy through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration Youth Task Force. He is now testing Trovador’s model at scale in Mafra National Park, with partners committed to large-scale deployments starting in 2027, targeting to plant 500,000+ trees.