African Woman Named Nobel Peace Laureate Kenya's Wangari Maathai.
Longtime Environmentalist and Justice Advocate, is Named by Norwegian Committee
On Earth Day in 1977, Kenya's Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement by planting seven trees in her backyard. The grassroots organization which grew from there encourages environmental protection by women and children. Because of the movement, over 15 million trees have been planted in Kenya, producing income for over 80,000 people. The movement has expanded to over 30 countries in Africa, and has a U.S. branch as well.
This was the beginning of a story in which the
most recent chapter saw Wangari Maathai awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
It was an honor undreamed of when, as a member of the National Council of Women of Kenya, Maathai began encouraging farmers, 70 percent of whom are women, to plant protective "green belts" of trees to help preserve the land and included indigenous species like acacias, cedars, citrus trees and figs. Seedlings are distributed free of charge to groups and individuals wanting to promote local green belts, and over 1,500 tree nurseries have been started. By now, 80 percent of the 15 million seedlings have matured, encouraging the Kenyan government to increase spendings 20-fold on tree plantings.
As a result of her blatant activism against nonenvironmental practices, Maathai has been jailed and beaten for her political activism, as well as earning the enmity of President Daniel arap Moi and his ruling faction after she rallied local protest against a $200 million development project.
But beyond politics, Maathai says it all starts
with something very local, the planting of just one tree. "We tend to think that protecting our forests is the responsibility of the government and the foresters. It is not. The responsibility is ours individually."
Maathai is the first African woman to receive
the Nobel Peace Prize. She has been commended for challenging Kenya's former government, led for 24 years by President Daniel arap Moi before he stepped down after elections in 2002.
Maathai--founder of Kenya's Greenbelt
Movement through which thousands of Kenyan women have planted thousands of trees--originally offered her remarks delivered by a colleague to the 2002 Global Anglican Congress on the Stewarship of Creation, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. The congress was coordinated by Archdeacon Taimalelagi F. TuatagaloaMatalavea, Anglican Observer at the United Nations.
In her remarks, Maathai observes: "When I was
a child, streams and rivers were clean and provided safe drinking water. Lush vegetation grew along riverbanks and bathed in the sweet waters in the streams. Rivers roared downstream and trout danced in the cold, clean and fresh streams."
She adds that when people make the connection between environmental degradation and the problems which communities face every day "the God in us will move and energize us. It will guide us from apathy to action, from being observers to doers in the hope that those actions can make a difference.
"Therefore, as His disciples, we set the example
and are courageous for those who need protection, fairness, justice and peace. And lest we forget the log in our eyes, we start with ourselves: serving, standing up, empowering others and ourselves and practicing love, compassion, justice and equity...to be examples of what we claim the Master Himself would do."
As the Anglican Communion News Service has
reported, the Green Belt Movement, begun in 1977, involves local people in civic education and environmental projects. Its work today has been extended to include food, security, advocacy and networking. Some 100,000 people are involved in the Movement's tree campaigns where local community associations are formed to organize plantings. Groups are encouraged to plant indigenous species and to date some two million trees have been planted throughout 19 of Kenya's 26 regions. Dr Maathai's statement inspired delegates to look to themselves to germinate and tend the seeds of change."I believe that inspirations come to all of us," she said, "but if we are unprepared they fall on infertile ground."
Regarding the Peace Prize, which is to be awarded December 10 accompanied by an award of some $1.3 million, the Norwegian Nobel Committee issued the following statement;