KENYA'S WANGARI MAATHAI CONTINUES TO SPEAK OUT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NAIROBI 003209 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/E E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV ENRG KGHG ECON PGOV KCOR KE SUBJECT: KENYA'S WANGARI MAATHAI CONTINUES TO SPEAK OUT ¶1. Summary: Kenya's Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, recipient of the 2007 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, continues to be a forceful advocate for better governance as a path to environmentally sustainable economic development in Kenya and across Africa. Her ability to influence policy and practice on the ground, however, is limited at times by the short-sighted nature of Kenyan politics. Maathai is continually finding new avenues to advance an agenda shared by the United States. Even if she loses her Parliamentary seat in the December election, Maathai will remain an influential voice for conservation. End summary. -------------- Passion for Tree Planting -------------- ¶2. In a July 26 meeting with Econoff, Prof. Wangari Maathai, who is also an elected Member of Parliament (MP),spoke passionately about a range of environmental concerns, but primarily focused on tree-planting and reclaiming environmentally degraded areas. Maathai said that local communities needed responsible leadership and improved educational outreach to fully understand the importance of sustainable management of resources. Lamenting the uncontrolled development of Nairobi's river catchment areas, she said her Green Belt Movement (GBM) is "ready to do battle" to protect the watersheds. She recently challenged African nations to "ring the bell" and confront the threat of global climate change. She challenged community development projects that do not consider environmental ramifications such as road building, and supported community-based reclamation of degraded forests in western Kenya. -------------- Education and Involvement at Ground Level -------------- ¶3. According to Prof. Maathai, education is needed to build farm-level awareness and understanding of environmental concerns such as deforestation and desertification. Information does not reach enough people because it is often disseminated in English or Kiswahili, rather than in local languages more farmers understand. Many subsistence farmers are poor people who are not thinking about tomorrow, but are just trying to meet the needs of today. Maathai believes that by increasing their awareness of environmental degradation, they will become involved in the solutions. -------------- Planting, Prayers, Promise -------------- ¶4. Under the Plant a Billion Tree Campaign initiated by the GBM and the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF),GBM pledged to plant two million trees in Kenya. Maathai also advocates planting a green belt of trees across the Sahara Desert from Dakar to Djibouti to combat global climate change and desertification, and to contribute to soil stabilization and watershed management. ¶5. Closer to home, Maathai passionately addressed some of the environmental challenges in development and building in riverine areas of Nairobi, and the loss of parks and green space in the city. She became very zealous when describing sites in Nairobi where building and development along the riverbed is exposing the bright red soil to erosion, damaging water quality. Her GBM has placed signs near these grim sites, imploring people to stop grabbing and degrading public lands. She is amazed that people continue to do so in the shadow of these signs, attributing this to greed and corruption. She left the interview with EconOff to meet with the Mayor of Nairobi and let him know that "we are ready for battle" over some of the sites. She explained that GBM is planning to have a planting event of hope and promise, beginning with prayers and then planting trees to reclaim recently disturbed river catchment regions in Nairobi, inviting Econoff to participate in planting. -------------- Good Governance -------------- ¶6. Prof. Maathai commented that good governance is essential to environmental health, and good management of resources contributes to peace. She explained that sometimes greed gets the better of people, giving the example that corruption allows building in riverbeds. Prof. Maathai also cited the example of the public works department sometimes clear-cutting all vegetation along roads to remove obstructions to vision that can cause accidents, which also accelerates erosion. Prof. Maathai was quoted in a local press report saying, "We need to protect our water catchments by planting more trees. If we destroy the environment, we will have no food." Maathai's views sometimes mobilize local communities to action. Residents of Nakuru in western Kenya are protesting the felling of over 1,000 trees in a road improvement project, according to a local press report. ¶7. Prof. Maathai promotes good governance and community NAIROBI 00003209 002 OF 002 involvement as keys to effective and sustainable economic development, a key area the Mission supports. The popularity of a music festival last week highlighting conservation topics such as desertification and deforestation exemplifies the grassroots support for Prof. Maathai's work and interest in a better environment. -------------- The Food Security Conundrum -------------- ¶8. Prof. Maathai is embarrassed when Kenyans need food aid, adding that population growth is not so much the issue as the capacity to manage it. She believes that Kenya could feed itself on a sustainable basis if farmers were trained to move from subsistence to sustainable, technology based-farming systems and cultivated unplanted land outside environmentally sensitive areas. ¶9. Prof. Maathai acknowledges that biotechnology could increase agricultural production and food supplies. However, in the context of the Parliament's discussion of the Biosafety Bill to regulate the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs),she highlighted the moral and ethical responsibility of government and scientists to regulate biotechnology. "We can do damage to ourselves if we are not careful. We have a moral obligation to not put people in danger. People trust the government and scientists; they have a moral responsibility to protect the people." -------------- Global Vision Can Conflict With Local Needs -------------- ¶10. Prof. Maathai appears regularly in the local news and speaks publicly on a variety of environmental topics. She recently criticized African countries for not responding to climate change, challenging them to take action to mitigate the likely significant impacts of climate change in Africa. On the other hand, Maathai's global perspective is often at odds with her constituents, who are more concerned about personal issues such as paying their children's school fees and basic survival. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶11. Professor Maathai's influence over the Kenyan government is limited by her decision to decline President Kibaki's appointment to be the Assistant Minister for Environment, and by the general short-sightedness of Kenya's politicians at the national and local levels. However, even if she loses her seat in Parliament in elections scheduled for later this year, she will remain an influential voice for conservation in Kenya and indeed around the world. RANNEBERGER