Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network
September 25, 2000
By Elissa Sonnenberg

This summer, drought and power outages have plagued Nairobi and all of Kenya. Yet, in the office of the Green Belt Movement, co-founder Wangari Maathai continues her work, undeterred by the political and economic odds stacked against her.

For nearly 30 years, Maathai has seen beyond the obstacles toward a brighter future. This has fueled her commitment to the environment.

“What I like best is whatever gives me hope that things will improve, despite the fact that they are currently so bad,” says Maathai, 60, who has been beaten and imprisoned but still managed to garner worldwide acclaim for her efforts to save forests and improve the quality of life for African families trapped in poverty.

Maathai, the first woman in eastern and central Africa to receive a doctorate degree, began her career as an activist when she joined the National Council of Women of Kenya in the 1970s. In 1976, she began planting trees with other Kenyans, mostly rural women, as a symbol of the importance of preserving environmental resources.

Thus, the GBM was born. In a broad effort aimed at averting desertification and increasing rural development, the GBM has planted tens of millions of trees in Kenya and around the world, employing tens of thousands of families who plant and sell seedlings to make a living from the land.

Thousands of GBM tree nurseries employ local natives— primarily women. These tree harvesters give their seedlings away, free of charge, to farmers, schools and individuals who they believe are capable of caring for them. Follow-up visits ensure that harvesters are only paid for trees that survive. Funding comes from institutions and individuals supportive of the GBM’s work.

“Maathai’s not afraid of working in the field with the people,” says Tore Brevik, director of communications and public information for the United Nations Environmental Program, headquartered near Nairobi. “We have benefited enormously from her work and participation in our activities.”

Maathai's strong belief in environmental conservation and her willingness to stand up against powerful forces have made her a very visible dissident. Government officials, who rail against her work to block environmentally destructive development in Nairobi, have learned never to underestimate her power.

Less than two years ago, Maathai opposed a plan that would have built luxury homes in Nairobi’s Karura Forest. Accompanied by a small group of peaceful protestors, she stepped forward to plant one tree in the forest — a symbolic gesture of reclamation. She was the first in the group to be clubbed and was later hospitalized with a gash to the head. After an international outcry and outpouring of support for Maathai, the government halted the project.

Though Maathai is constantly threatened and has even been forced into hiding, those closest to her know she could never be comfortable in a safer, less active role.

“It’s very difficult work,” admits Maathai’s daughter Wanjira, 28, who lives in the United States and works as a senior program officer for the Carter Center. Despite her ever-present concern for her mother’s safety, Wanjira Maathai accepts the reality she grew up knowing. Her mother cannot sit still while devastation affects families all around her.

Speaking up for her beliefs and coordinating the GBM through its growth has brought Maathai international recognition. She has received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel Prize” (1984), the UN’s Africa Prize for leadership (1991), the Better World Society Award (1986) and the Windstar Award for the environment (1988), among other honors. She’s also listed as a member of UNEP's Global 500 Hall of Fame and helped found the Women’s Environment and Development Organization.

Maathai’s successful environmental crusade in her poverty-stricken nation is as much about women’s rights and human rights as it is about saving the Earth. “She’s giving people work,” says UNEP’s Brevik.

He explains that the small enterprises that Maathai helps villagers establish keep them from growing desperate enough to destroy the natural resources around them. “If it comes to a question of trying to survive from one day to another, and you don’t have any other choice, you will cut down even the last tree to try to survive,” Brevik says. Maathai is working to stop this.

While she downplays the importance of her personal accomplishments, Maathai does take pride in the fact that after years of effort, the grass-roots message of the GBM has made it to the boardrooms of decision-makers at the highest levels of government in Kenya, including President Daniel arap Moi. She believes that her message of conservation has taken root in the minds of government and business leaders, making it impossible to ignore.

“That awareness is like a conscience,” she maintains. Maathai plans to continue her fight for the environment and expand its focus on major issues that impact the natural world, from child neglect to poverty. “I see myself moving to new areas all the time,” she says, “being the peacemaker.” Error: Unable to read footer file.