Africa's ' MOTHER of Trees'
From Women in World History Curriculum:
Dr. Maahtai is leader and founder of the international “Green Belt”
movement which seeks to provide a sustainable livelihood for people by
conserving places that have been home to them through the centuries. It
is an educational movement as well, helping people understand the
connection between environmental degradation and a multitude of other
issues, such as soil erosion, drought, hunger, and poverty.
In the fall of 2004, the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave Dr.
Wangari Maahtai its prestigious prize by saying that she “represents an
example and a source of inspiration for everyone in Africa fighting for
sustainable development, democracy and peace.” In another statement
they said that “peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our
living environment.” Wangari is the first African woman to win this
prize. Reflecting on the honor, Wangari Maathia said, “People are
fighting over water, over food, and over other natural resources. When
our resources become scarce, we fight over them. In managing our
resources and in sustainable development, we plant the seeds of peace.”
And, “for the first time, the Nobel Prize committee has made the
necessary link between sustainable environment and democracy.”
The
Green Belt organization was begun in 1977 in response to the
devastating deforestation of Kenya’s forest cover, now 2.9% of what it
once was. Wangari remembers water cascading down from Kenya’s forests
before the trees were cut down near her home, and that these trees
preserved water. In poor regions of the world, those living near a
forest use it as fuel for heat, for food and for water. Maathia said
that cutting-down trees creates a ripple effect resulting in “drought,
malnutrition, famine and death.” In the 1970s and 80s, she also
“discovered that corrupt government agents were responsible for much of
the deforestation by illegally selling off land and trees to
well-connected developers.” At that time, Dr. Maathai, Kenya’s first
female PhD., was chair of a department at the University of Nairobi’s
Veterinary Anatomy Department. She also had joined Kenya’s National
Council of Women where she introduced a grass roots program that hired
the poor to help improve the natural environment of their areas,
including the planting of over 6,000 tree seedlings. The idea was to
plant protective “green belts” to help preserve the land. Farmers, 70%
of whom were women, were encouraged to join the movement. To win their
participation, Maathai developed ways to ensure that the green belts
would generate income. In many cases, the movement let women own the
trees they planted and the products from them. She also created
technical training so people could take jobs as nursery managers,
environmental program teachers, and forest rangers. “We try to make
women see they can do something worthwhile; they can build, or destroy,
the environment.”
Although initially the Green Belt
Movement’s tree planting activities did not address issues of democracy
and peace, it soon became clear that responsible governance of the
environment was impossible without democratic freedom. Therefore, the
movement encouraged people to challenge widespread abuses of power,
corruption, and environmental mismanagement. A tree became a symbol for
the democratic struggle in Kenya. In 1990 Dr. Maathia became a national
figure when she challenged the ruling party’s plan to use the only
green space in downtown Nairobi for a skyscraper and shopping mall. Her
cause was won through legal battles and growing public reaction against
the project. But the government of Daniel arap Moi labeled Maathai and
her movement subversive. In 1992, when Wangari initiated sit-ins and a
hunger strike in support of political prisoners, some of whom were
prisoners of conscience, she was beaten and jailed. Once she even had
to go into hiding.
After Mr. Moi lost power in the 2002
election, Wangari won a seat in Parliament where she sits today.
Wangari has spoken out in support of victims of violent ethnic clashes
in Western Kenya, and is a strong advocate for women’s rights in Kenya.
She travels throughout the world campaigning for womens' rights and
those of the oppressed. She has won numerous awards, including the
“Right Livelihood Award,” often called “the alternative Nobel Peace
Prize.” In Kenya, her Green Belt movement has planted 30 million trees.
Through her efforts, women across Africa have planted tens of millions
more, helping stop the deforestation that has stripped much of the
continent bare. Wangari Maahtai has said, “As household managers in
rural and urban areas of the developing world, women are the first to
encounter the effects of ecological stress. It forces them to walk
farther to get wood for cooking and heating, to search for clean water
and to find new sources of food as old ones disappear.” A woman farmer
once praised Maathai by saying of her,“she is stubborn. She’s made of
the same hardwood trees that grew here.” Other of her admirers believe
Maathai will in fact be reborn as a tree!
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