Nature:
“When you don’t cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life” Eckhart Tolle
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,The Green Belt Movement
Quick Benefits Can’t Justify Cutting Down Forests
Ten countries in the Central African region established the Congo Basin Forest Initiative to manage the forest more sustainably and conserve its rich biodiversity. The Congo Basin Forest is the world’s second largest forest ecosystem and is considered the planet’s second lung, after the Amazon. The forests of the Congo Basin provide food, shelter, and livelihood for over 50 million people.
Covering 200 million hectares and including approximately one-fifth of the world’s remaining closed-canopy tropical forest, they are also a very significant carbon store with a vital role in regulating the regional climate. The diversity they harbour is of global importance.
Spanning an area twice the size of France, the Congo Basin rainforest is home to more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals.
Today, the Congo Basin rainforest is coming under pressure. Increased logging, changing patterns of agriculture, population growth, and the oil and mining industries are all leading to ever greater deforestation.
This situation is not sustainable for the people who live there, for the countless species that may be driven to extinction, or for the climate. Reversing the rate of deforestation in the Congo Basin is therefore essential both to securing the livelihoods of the people in the region and to maintaining the carbon-storage capacity and biodiversity of the forest.
Forests are indispensable yet we take them for granted. Though they appear inexhaustible, they can perish. The two nations who share the island of Hispaniola — Haiti and the Dominican Republic — provide a vivid example of what happens when we destroy our environment, and especially forests.
The deforestation of Haiti and the subsequent loss of its soil made the country vulnerable to devastation by hurricanes and deepened its poverty and misery. Conditions in the Dominican Republic, which largely retains its forests, are significantly better than the other side of the island.
SADLY, THE GENERATIONS THAT DEstroy the environment are often not the ones that feel the consequences. It is the following generations who suffer.
While it is important to protect forests in our individual countries, it is also important to recognise the special value of forests that lie elsewhere, like the Congo Basin forest ecosystem. The negative impact of destructive activities in the Congo forest will be felt in countries both within and outside Africa.
What Africa needs is not only to protect its indigenous forests, but also to engage in massive forestation efforts. It is possible for our people to grow the commercial plantations needed by the timber and building industries. But it is wrong to sacrifice forests to generate quick economic benefits from expansive commercial tree farms.
When we do that, we undermine the capacity of our children and grandchildren to get water and reliable rainfall for agriculture. They may also not be able to generate hydropower and enjoy the many other uses of water because rivers may dry up. Africa is already considered a water-scarce continent. It cannot afford to sacrifice its watersheds.
Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate and Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Forest, is founder of the Green Belt Movement (www.greenbelt-movement.org)
Many Wars Are for Control of Scarce Resources
Indeed, many conflicts are caused by competition over national resources. This is partly because as resources become more scarce or as people become selfish, greedy and corrupt, there is a drive by the powerful and the privileged to control them at the exclusion of others.
Unfortunately, those who feel excluded look for means to seek justice and dignity. That is how dissatisfaction begins and is nurtured until conflicts, clashes and wars emerge. There is, therefore, need to educate ourselves about the link between the environment and peace and security.
If the link was appreciated, many conflicts would be pre-empted. The environment would be a priority in national budgets and development plans. But the link is poorly understood and many people are unwilling to consider it. The environment is still treated as a luxury, drawing attention only when it is to be exploited to provide timber or land.
People look at forests, for example, and see land and shambas, rather than a resource that provides primary services such as water, regulates climate and rainfall, cleans the air and is a habitat for wildlife. Because the environment is not adequately appreciated, governments would rather prioritise the Internal Security ministry and buy guns and bullets.
Peace cannot be found where the voice of the minorities, the poor and the powerless are ignored and marginalised. These ills are not accidents. They are allowed and tolerated by leaders who refuse to be fair and just. They refuse to manage national resources sustainably and distribute them equitably.
When resources are not sustainably managed, they may be polluted, excessively exploited and destroyed by greedy and corrupt individuals and organisations. When they are not equitably shared, extreme poverty is tolerated amid excessive wealth. When this happens, the community that feels excluded may accept discrimination and injustice as their destiny.
But some may seek justice using other means at their disposal. Some opt for violence, destruction and death. For fairness and justice to reign, there is need for a system that allows that to happen. It should be democratic even though that can mean different things to different people.
Whatever it is called, if peace is to be found within national or regional borders, it has to be a system which respects human rights and the rule of law; includes diversity in the society and ensures that the minority have their say even though, in a democracy, the majority might have their way.
There are hardly any wars fought today that are not over the need to expand borders, access and control water, minerals, grazing and agricultural land or access to forests or coastlines. If countries want peace and security, the leadership must work for justice and fairness for all. They must work for equity, human dignity and the rule of law.
One of the resources we should particularly care about is the forest. Not only because forests provide humanity with many services, but also because without them, the long-term life of the nation is undermined. But in Africa, many investors clear indigenous forests and replace them with commercial plantations of imported trees or crops.
This is partly because forests are wetter, more fertile and investors can make quick profits in a short time. We justify the destruction by promising jobs and wealth. But at what cost? Countries must weigh the short-term benefits of quick profits and jobs against the long-term interests of the present and future generations.
Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an environmentalist, a civil society and women’s rights activist, and a parliamentarian. You can read about her life and her organization through her two books, Unbowed: A Memoir and The Green Belt Movement. You can also scan condensed versions of her life and achievements, including being awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
Since winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai has become a spokesperson for a number of important initiatives.
The Green Belt Movement is a grassroots non-governmental organization based in Nairobi, Kenya that takes an holistic approach to development by focusing on environmental conservation, community development and capacity building. Professor Wangari Maathai established the organization in 1977, under the auspices of the Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (National Council of Women of Kenya).
The Green Belt Movement organizes poor rural women in Kenya to plant trees, combat deforestation, restore their main source of fuel for cooking, generate income, and stop soil erosion. Maathai has incorporated advocacy and empowerment for women, eco-tourism, and just economic development into the Green Belt Movement. 
Members of GBM plant trees on an eroding hillside. Photo by Mia MacDonald
Since Maathai started the movement in 1977, over 30 million trees have been planted. Over 30,000 women trained in forestry, food processing, bee-keeping, and other trades that help them earn income while preserving their lands and resources. Communities in Kenya (both men and women) have been motivated and organized to both prevent further environmental destruction and restore that which has been damaged.
This is Our Living Planet..
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