“Plant trees,” she said.

     In the current issue of Woodlands & Prairies we pay tribute to the late Wangari Maathai, the environmental activist and humanitarian who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.  Ms. Maathai died of cancer in September of this year.   She was the one who, in the early ‘70s, suggested to a group of rural women in Kenya that they plant trees.  The simple act of planting fruit and other trees had far-reaching results.  It provided the women a source of nutritious food, wood for cooking, fodder for livestock, and cleaner water as the roots stabilized the soil. That was the beginning of the Green Belt Movement founded by Ms. Maathai in 1977.  It led to the planting of more than 40 million trees in Kenya alone and many millions more as the basis of a worldwide environmental movement.  www.greenbeltmovement.org   

 
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Drawing: John Mundt

     It’s interesting how the tree planting by the Kenyan women not only benefitted the environment, it also changed their lives.  Improved access to food, fuel, fodder, and clean water empowered the women economically and politically.  Doing good for the environment rewards the caregivers in many ways.

 

     In the post below, we explore some of those ways.