Green Belt Movement (Wangari Maathai), Kenya

Green Belt Movement (Wangari Maathai), Kenya

Abstract

In an overview, this paper covers on the Green Belt Movement, its introduction and how it has been of effect in Kenya. The paper discusses the goals and objectives set by the Movement. It also shows the target or recipients of the Movement. It further discusses the successes of the movement and the reasons behind these successes. Lessons and best practices learnt are discussed in the paper and a conclusion given.

Introduction

The Green Belt Movement was founded in 1977 by the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Professor Wangari Maathai. It is a non-governmental organization situated in Nairobi, Kenya focusing on environmental conservation, community empowerment and sustainable livelihoods. An increase in the needs of the rural Kenyan women,  for example, due to drying up of streams, threatened food supply and diminishing firewood sources triggered the creation of the movement (Maathai, 2008). In order to meet these needs, Wangari Maathai started a widespread tree-planting strategy involving the planting of a thousand seedlings  in long rows. These formed green belts of trees and marked the commencement of the Green Belt Movement. These green belts provided windbreaks and shade, facilitated soil conservation, improved the beauty of the landscape and provided a habitat for birds and other small animals.

Research shows that, motivation towards the start of the Green Belt Movement was the increase of degradation of the natural environment and lack of water. Degradation of the natural environment results from increased cut down of trees in the major forests. These forests included Mt Kenya Forest, the Aberdares Forest and the Mau Forest. These forests are the main water catchment areas and mark the sources of significant rivers that provided water for the communities living downstream. The rivers are for the generation of electricity that served key industries and provided jobs in the urban centers. As a result of lack of water, there was a reduction in food production since many rural women depended on rivers for food production throughout the year. Therefore, this movement aims at addressing poverty, a social justice that affects a large percentage of the Kenyan population. These include the urban poor and people in rural areas.

Goals and objectives of Green Belt Movement

The Green Belt Movement devised several goals that it aimed to achieve. These goals include, to increase the provision of wood fuel for both the rural populations and the urban poor. Secondly, the movement plans to provide for the need of fencing and building materials, mainly in the rural settings. Thirdly, the Green Belt Movement set a goal of fighting malnutrition and hunger which are rampant in Kenya. Fourthly, it plans to protect the forests and in turn protect the water catchment areas. Finally, it set a goal of improving the low economic status of women through involving the women in activities, which aid in transferring farming techniques and knowledge to the women. In order to achieve these goals, the Green Belt Movement comes up with the following objectives. Firstly, it aims at restoring the ecosystem. Secondly, it aims at promoting sustainable livelihoods among the Kenyan population. Thirdly, it aims at empowering women to act as advocates of conserving the environment. Finally, it sets the objective of promoting democracy in the Kenyan political system that would lead to a government that supports initiatives like environmental conservation (Maathai & Green Belt Movement (Society: Kenya), 2003).

Target of the Green Belt Movement

The Green Belt Movement’s main target is the women in the rural areas. It educates and informs them about the connections between environment degradation and development policies. It encourages women to prevent soil erosion, reduce the processes that lead to desertification, loss of bio-diversity and adopt planting and eating of indigenous food crops. It also encourages women to create jobs through farming and sale of food crops grown in rural areas. The Movement also targets all the Kenyan citizens. It educates them on economic and political issues which have essential connections with environmental concerns, and are likely to have negative impacts on the environment. It educates the society on the role of protecting the environment, pursuing participatory development and promoting responsible governance that protects human rights, and respects the rule of law.

In order for the Green Belt Movement to create and carry out the program, it requires funds, human resource and time. The main human resources are the women who work in the grassroots. They plant and manage seedlings in tree nurseries. They mainly plant indigenous seedlings for planting in the threatened water catchment areas, their homes, public land, protected reserves and sites with cultural significance. However, for these women to be successful, the Movement deploys extension officers who aid in training them and communities at large. The extension officers train the communities on environment conservation and climate change. They also train them on how to plant and take care of the seedlings. These extension officers work under the Community Empowerment and Education program, a product of the Global Belt Movement. This program empowers communities to identify links between the environment and poverty and ways to address these issues, thus being able to improve their livelihoods.

The Movement needs to identify the affected areas that require reforestation. Therefore, it requires to develop an approach to planning, monitoring and analysis. This leads to the introduction of remote sensing tools and equipment with the capacity to produce satellite imagery. The Movement uses Spot imagery and the GeoEye imagery. They aid in production of forest maps that help in analyzing the level of forest cover and the needed interventions. Through this equipment, field officers aid women and communities, to track their tree belts and thus be able to monitor the progress. This aids in managing their tree nurseries and seedlings. In order for the Movement, to be able to carry out these activities, an organization by the name Esri avails its ArcGIS Server that provides an interactive Web map. This allows communities to share information with other project stakeholders. This results from the maps showing the location of the communities’ tree nurseries, their production capacity and the households participating in the nursery group. The location of the information on tree nurseries in the grassroots scales up the success of the Green Belt Movement in environmental conservation.

Other organizations that aid the Movement to plan, monitor and measure the impact of conversational efforts include Trimble, Astrium’s Planet Action, Blue Raster and Exelis. In addition, the activities of these organizations and people require funds in order to be successful. The various organizations that provide Green Belt Movement with funds are the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation, the Gaia Foundation and various European Government Agencies. However, the Green Belt Movement uses methods to pass information to the people and organizations. These include use of seminars, workshops and exchange visits.

Evidence of the Program’s success

Today, evidence show that the Green Belt Movement is a success. It has supported grassroots communities to plant over 50 million trees in a variety of areas. This improves the total forest cover by 2% towards the achievement of required 10% cover. It also aids in restoring thousands of hectares of degraded forest land and water catchment areas.  Control of soil erosion in community lands leads to the increase in agriculture and food production. In addition, there is an improvement of livelihoods of many women in the rural areas by meeting their needs of wood fuel and increase in sources of water for farming. In addition, there was a rejuvenation of many streams that faced drying up and thus an increase in water supply in the country. Further to this, there is an improvement in electricity production. This is due to the conservation of the Mt Kenya and the Aberdare forests that serve as the main water catchment areas, for rivers used in hydroelectric power production. Conservation of forests also leads to increase in tourism. This is as a result of conservation of natural habitats of tourist attracting animals and birds. This raises the economy of the country and creates jobs for the high population (Maathai, 2004).

Reasons behind the success

This program has been a success due to various reasons. Firstly, the communities understand the need of conserving the environment, and how this contributes to their efforts of alleviating poverty. Therefore, they commit fully to environmental conservation as they work towards improving their livelihoods. This commitment is a key reason for the Green Belt Movement’s success. Secondly, improving the governance system in the country aids the Movement in being successful. The Government with an aim of upholding the human rights of its citizens contributes to environmental conservation. Many government officials participate in tree planting when they hold public meetings. They also encourage people to take up tree planting in order to attain the goal of 10% forest cover. Thirdly, involvement of business organizations and learning institutions in environmental conservation makes the program a success. They participate in tree planting while celebrating the Worlds Tree Planting Day and also as their corporate social responsibility activities.

Therefore, various practices and lessons can be learnt from the program. Firstly, commitment is a key factor towards achieving success. The Kenyan population has shown full commitment towards achieving a 10% forest cover. Both the poor and the rich have joined hands towards the attainment of this. The school children follow  the footsteps of their parents in planting trees. The women in rural areas commit to conserving the environment in order to supply food to the population. Secondly, from this research on Global Belt Movement, one learns that hard work pays. The program through the hard work of its stakeholders has attained 2% increase in forest cover. The rivers that produce electricity are rejuvenating, and the country thus provides electrical power for many of its citizens. Industries are able to work through out due to availability of electrical power. Consequently, the creation of jobs is evident; there is a drop of the level of unemployment in Kenya. Thirdly, the practice of informing and educating the communities in the grassroots aids, in understanding the goals and objectives of the program. The Movement educates the communities in the connections between environmental degradation and development policies. Once they understand this they focus their efforts to conserve the environment in order to develop and improve their livelihood.

Pitfalls

The movement faced various problems including those emanating from the government. The political period of the 1980s was against the movement because it taught people about liberation from oppressive government and the lack of democracy.  An attempt to demolish Uhuru park by by president Moi hindered the activities of the program. Other pitfalls include ethnicity, corruption and funding issues.

In conclusion, environmental conservation is an essential aspect in dealing with climate change. The Green Belt Movement participates in this through its conversational efforts in Kenya. Its success its indicated by the increase in the Kenyan forest cover to 2%. This leads to conservation of water catchment areas and thus rejuvenation of main rivers in the country. The citizens use these rivers for agriculture and hydro power production. As a result, there has been an increase in food production and creation of employment, which reduces the poverty level in Kenya. Therefore, the Green Belt Movement not only conserves the environment but also improves the livelihoods of the population.

 

References

Maathai, W. (2004, December 10). Trees For Democracy. New York Times. p. A41.

Maathai, W. (2008). An Unbreakable Link. Harvard International Review, 29(4), 24-27.

Maathai, W., & Green Belt Movement (Society : Kenya). (2003). The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the approach and the experience. New York: Lantern Books.

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