Wangari Maathai: Mother of Trees
Meet the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Celebrating a heroine
Wangari Maathai was the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. She always believed that we have a friend in trees, the tree is the symbol of hope, self improvement and what people can do for themselves in planting trees.
On a field visit to one of the water towersOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
Student years
Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, a rural area of Kenya (Africa), in 1940. She obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (1964), and a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh (1966).
She pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi, before obtaining a PhD (1971) from the University of Nairobi, where she taught veterinary anatomy.
Giving a lecture on Climate ChangeOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
The first of many
Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Professor Maathai became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977 respectively. In both cases, she was the first woman to attain those positions in the region.
With one of her favourite tree speciesOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
The empowering woman
Professor Maathai was active in the National Council of Women of Kenya (1976–1987) and was its chairman (1981–1987). In 1976, while she was serving in the National Council of Women, Professor Maathai introduced the idea of community-based tree planting.
Different species of seedlings (2017)Original Source: The Green Belt Movement
The Green Belt Movement (GBM)
She continued to develop this idea into a broad-based grassroots organisation, the Green Belt Movement (GBM), whose main focus is poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting. Founded in 1977 by Professor Maathai, GBM has planted over 51 million trees in Kenya.
Nobel Lecture by Professor Wangari MaathaiOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
Nobel lecture by Professor Maathai
Professor Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10, 2004 in the Oslo City Hall, Norway.
Giving a lectureOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
A passionate fighter
Professor Maathai was internationally acknowledged for her struggle for democracy, human rights, and environmental conservation, and served on the board of many organisations.
She addressed the UN on a number of occasions and spoke on behalf of women at special sessions of the General Assembly during the five-year review of the Earth Summit. She served on the Commission for Global Governance and the Commission on the Future.
Professor Wangari MaathaiOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
In parliament
Professor Maathai represented the Tetu constituency in Kenya’s parliament (2002–2007), and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in Kenya’s ninth parliament (2003–2007). In 2005, she was appointed Goodwill Ambassador to the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem by the eleven Heads of State in the Congo region.
Soiling (2020)Original Source: The Green Belt Movement
Nobel Women’s Initiative
In 2006, she founded the Nobel Women’s Initiative with her sister laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams, and Mairead Corrigan. In 2007, Professor Maathai was invited to be co-chair of the Congo Basin Fund, an initiative by the British and Norwegian governments to help protect the Congo forests.
Pose of what she had fallen in love withOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
UN Messenger of Peace
In recognition of her deep commitment to the environment, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General named Professor Maathai a UN Messenger of Peace in December 2009, with a focus on the environment and climate change.
On a field visit to one of the water towersOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
Millennium Development Goals
In 2010 she was appointed to the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group: a panel of political leaders, business people and activists established with the aim to galvanise worldwide support for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
She also became a trustee of the Karura Forest Environmental Education Trust, established to safeguard the public land for whose protection she had fought for almost twenty years.
Illegal Farming (2020)Original Source: The Green Belt Movement
The Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace
That same year, in partnership with the University of Nairobi, she founded the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies (WMI). The WMI brings together academic research in land use, forestry, agriculture, resource-based conflicts, and peace studies, with the Green Belt Movement approach and members of the organisation.
During her happy momentsOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
Heroine and icon of hope
Professor Maathai died on 25 September 2011 at the age of 71 after a battle with ovarian cancer. Memorial ceremonies were held in Kenya, New York, San Francisco, and London.
In the field posing for a shootOriginal Source: The Green Belt Movement
Her words of caution
“If you destroy the forest then the river will stop flowing, the rains will become irregular, the crops will fail and you will die of hunger and starvation.”
Professor Wangari Maathai
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