Nurturing trees, nurturing democracy
Nurturing trees, nurturing democracy
Updated 06:37am (Mla time) Dec 15, 2004
By Michael Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the December 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE NOBEL Peace Prize has usually been associated with people helping to resolve armed conflicts (for example, the United Nations' Kofi Annan) or those who provide assistance to victims of these conflicts (Medecins sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders). This year it was different. The Peace Prize was awarded to a Kenyan environmental activist, Wangari Maathai, known for her Green Belt Movement, which has resulted in the planting of 30 million trees in several African countries.
People will ask, as I did: What does tree planting have to do with peace?
It's a question we should be asking ourselves in the Philippines, as we continue to reel from the destruction caused by flooding in deforested areas.
Biologist, veterinarian, activist
From her biography posted in the Nobel Prize website, we learn she obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in biological sciences from the United States and went on to obtain a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine at the University of Nairobi, making her the first woman in East and Central Africa to have a doctorate. Maathai taught veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi for several years.
In 1977, as a member of the National Council of Women of Kenya, she introduced the idea of women's groups planting trees to improve their quality of life. This led to the formation of the Green Belt Movement, which has since spread to other African countries. The movement uses tree planting as an entry point for community development, and has since spun off many other activities, including eco-safaris, where foreign tourists come in as volunteers to help plant trees.
Maathai combined her environmentalism with political activism, opposing the autocratic Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi and even running against him in the presidential elections in 1997. Her opposition to the Moi regime was based in part on his anti-environmental policies. Maathai was imprisoned several times for her opposition to the government, and was hospitalized once after being beaten up in a rally.
The Moi government was voted out of power in 2002. During those elections, Maathai won a seat in parliament and has since been appointed assistant minister for environment, natural resources and wildlife.
A women's movement
Maathai began her Nobel Peace lecture by referring to the fact that she was the first African woman to receive the prize, and, that in accepting it, she was particularly mindful of the situation of women and the girl child. She started the Green Belt Movement mainly as a response "to needs identified by rural women, namely lack of firewood, clean drinking water, balanced diets, shelter and income." Because women are the primary caretakers for families and the land, they are the first to become aware of environmental damage, with tree planting being "a natural choice."
Maathai was able to mobilize women to plant trees not just for environmental conservation but also for very practical purposes, including income generation, the tree seedlings eventually being sold to nurseries. There are lessons here for Filipinos. We still see tree planting as a token gesture done on Environment Day rather than as a vital tool for survival.
Maathai gives new meanings to tree planting, describing it as concrete action taken to change one's situation. It is, she says, "an act from where you can make a difference."
Once women discovered they had the power to act, the Green Belt meetings became forums to tackle other social issues, from violence within their households to government corruption to unfair international trade agreements that affected the farmers' livelihoods.
In her Nobel lecture, Maathai was emphatic about the relationship between democracy and environmental conservation: "... responsible governance of the environment was impossible without democratic space."
We Filipinos should remember that the plunder of our forests was most intense during the Marcos dictatorship, as concessions were parceled out to his cronies. By the time democracy was restored in 1986, our forests had practically been wiped out. Since then, even with formal democratic institutions restored, political warlords and dynasties have continued to control the country, using their power to destroy what's left of the forests while moving on to pillage the rest of the environment.
In a BBC special, Maathai described how the tree became a symbol for democratic struggle in Kenya. In 1989, the Kenyan government fenced off part of Nairobi's Uhuru (Freedom) Park, where one of Moi's business cronies wanted to build a 60-story building. Maathai joined other Kenyans to protest, and eventually the government backed off. Maathai says that the day authorities removed the fence around the park was "the beginning of the end of the dictatorship."
Through the years, Nairobi's Uhuru Park continued to be the focus of political action, Kenyans planting trees to demand the release of political prisoners and for a transition to democracy. In the BBC special, Maathai used this powerful metaphor: nurturing the trees is like nurturing the seeds for democracy.
And peace?
Maathai said trees were planted during the anti-dictatorship struggle in Kenya as part of a call for peaceful transition to democracy. Eventually, tree planting was also used for conflict resolution, especially during ethnic conflicts in Kenya. These "peace trees" actually drew from traditional practices: for example, the elders of the Kikuyu tribe would carry a staff from the thigi tree and place this between two disputing sides to stop fighting and get reconciliation talks going.
Reading that part of Maathai's Nobel lecture, I thought of our own situation, of the conflicts in Mindanao, for example, that erupt from the competition for scarce land and resources. I thought, too, of our own situation in urban areas, where we continue to use up our rapidly dwindling green spaces, depriving young Filipinos of potential parks and recreation areas. In such a situation, should it be surprising that young people turn to a violent culture of fraternities and drugs?
Maathai links the environment to democracy and peace. "Indeed, the state of any country's environment is a reflection of the kind of governance in place, and without good governance there can be no peace," she says. "Many countries, which have poor governance systems, are also likely to have conflicts and poor laws protecting the environment."
We need to ask ourselves: If we are indeed a democracy, why do we suffer so much from environmental degradation, together with all the problems resulting from the loss of natural resources, from deadly floods to hungry severely malnourished children?
Is there a way out of this quagmire? Maathai would point us to the trees, and the communities mobilized for tree planting, for the answers.
Updated 06:37am (Mla time) Dec 15, 2004
By Michael Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the December 15, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE NOBEL Peace Prize has usually been associated with people helping to resolve armed conflicts (for example, the United Nations' Kofi Annan) or those who provide assistance to victims of these conflicts (Medecins sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders). This year it was different. The Peace Prize was awarded to a Kenyan environmental activist, Wangari Maathai, known for her Green Belt Movement, which has resulted in the planting of 30 million trees in several African countries.
People will ask, as I did: What does tree planting have to do with peace?
It's a question we should be asking ourselves in the Philippines, as we continue to reel from the destruction caused by flooding in deforested areas.
Biologist, veterinarian, activist
From her biography posted in the Nobel Prize website, we learn she obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in biological sciences from the United States and went on to obtain a Ph.D. in veterinary medicine at the University of Nairobi, making her the first woman in East and Central Africa to have a doctorate. Maathai taught veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi for several years.
In 1977, as a member of the National Council of Women of Kenya, she introduced the idea of women's groups planting trees to improve their quality of life. This led to the formation of the Green Belt Movement, which has since spread to other African countries. The movement uses tree planting as an entry point for community development, and has since spun off many other activities, including eco-safaris, where foreign tourists come in as volunteers to help plant trees.
Maathai combined her environmentalism with political activism, opposing the autocratic Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi and even running against him in the presidential elections in 1997. Her opposition to the Moi regime was based in part on his anti-environmental policies. Maathai was imprisoned several times for her opposition to the government, and was hospitalized once after being beaten up in a rally.
The Moi government was voted out of power in 2002. During those elections, Maathai won a seat in parliament and has since been appointed assistant minister for environment, natural resources and wildlife.
A women's movement
Maathai began her Nobel Peace lecture by referring to the fact that she was the first African woman to receive the prize, and, that in accepting it, she was particularly mindful of the situation of women and the girl child. She started the Green Belt Movement mainly as a response "to needs identified by rural women, namely lack of firewood, clean drinking water, balanced diets, shelter and income." Because women are the primary caretakers for families and the land, they are the first to become aware of environmental damage, with tree planting being "a natural choice."
Maathai was able to mobilize women to plant trees not just for environmental conservation but also for very practical purposes, including income generation, the tree seedlings eventually being sold to nurseries. There are lessons here for Filipinos. We still see tree planting as a token gesture done on Environment Day rather than as a vital tool for survival.
Maathai gives new meanings to tree planting, describing it as concrete action taken to change one's situation. It is, she says, "an act from where you can make a difference."
Once women discovered they had the power to act, the Green Belt meetings became forums to tackle other social issues, from violence within their households to government corruption to unfair international trade agreements that affected the farmers' livelihoods.
In her Nobel lecture, Maathai was emphatic about the relationship between democracy and environmental conservation: "... responsible governance of the environment was impossible without democratic space."
We Filipinos should remember that the plunder of our forests was most intense during the Marcos dictatorship, as concessions were parceled out to his cronies. By the time democracy was restored in 1986, our forests had practically been wiped out. Since then, even with formal democratic institutions restored, political warlords and dynasties have continued to control the country, using their power to destroy what's left of the forests while moving on to pillage the rest of the environment.
In a BBC special, Maathai described how the tree became a symbol for democratic struggle in Kenya. In 1989, the Kenyan government fenced off part of Nairobi's Uhuru (Freedom) Park, where one of Moi's business cronies wanted to build a 60-story building. Maathai joined other Kenyans to protest, and eventually the government backed off. Maathai says that the day authorities removed the fence around the park was "the beginning of the end of the dictatorship."
Through the years, Nairobi's Uhuru Park continued to be the focus of political action, Kenyans planting trees to demand the release of political prisoners and for a transition to democracy. In the BBC special, Maathai used this powerful metaphor: nurturing the trees is like nurturing the seeds for democracy.
And peace?
Maathai said trees were planted during the anti-dictatorship struggle in Kenya as part of a call for peaceful transition to democracy. Eventually, tree planting was also used for conflict resolution, especially during ethnic conflicts in Kenya. These "peace trees" actually drew from traditional practices: for example, the elders of the Kikuyu tribe would carry a staff from the thigi tree and place this between two disputing sides to stop fighting and get reconciliation talks going.
Reading that part of Maathai's Nobel lecture, I thought of our own situation, of the conflicts in Mindanao, for example, that erupt from the competition for scarce land and resources. I thought, too, of our own situation in urban areas, where we continue to use up our rapidly dwindling green spaces, depriving young Filipinos of potential parks and recreation areas. In such a situation, should it be surprising that young people turn to a violent culture of fraternities and drugs?
Maathai links the environment to democracy and peace. "Indeed, the state of any country's environment is a reflection of the kind of governance in place, and without good governance there can be no peace," she says. "Many countries, which have poor governance systems, are also likely to have conflicts and poor laws protecting the environment."
We need to ask ourselves: If we are indeed a democracy, why do we suffer so much from environmental degradation, together with all the problems resulting from the loss of natural resources, from deadly floods to hungry severely malnourished children?
Is there a way out of this quagmire? Maathai would point us to the trees, and the communities mobilized for tree planting, for the answers.
posted by Dante at 6:37 AM
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