Podcast summary

Wangari Muta Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which, through networks of rural women, has planted over 30 million trees across Kenya since 1977. In 2002, she was elected to Kenya's Parliament in the first free elections in a generation, and in 2003 was appointed Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources, and Wildlife. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 2004, she is the author of Unbowed: A Memoir, and speaks to organizations around the world. Her newest book, The Challenge for Africa addresses the intricacies of African issues, such as the lack of technological developments, the absence of fair international trade, population pressures and enduring hunger, and the dearth of genuine political and economic leadership. Maathai stresses the need for Africans to invent and implement their own solutions, rather than relying on foreign aid and Western visions of change, and calls for a revolution in leadership on both a political and individual level.

Participant(s) Bio

Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Kenya in 1940. The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Professor Maathai obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, and a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She pursued doctoral studies in Germany and Kenya, obtaining a Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi where she became the first woman chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy.

Professor Maathai also served as chairman of the National Council of Women of Kenya, where she introduced the idea of community-based tree planting. This broad-based grassroots concept focused on poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting, thus becoming known as the Green Belt Movement (GBM). To date, the GBM has assisted women in planting more than 40 million trees on community lands including farms, schools and church compounds.

In December 2002, Professor Maathai was elected to Kenya's parliament with an overwhelming 98 percent of the vote. She served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in Kenya's ninth parliament from 2003-2007. In 2005, she was elected the Presiding Officer of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr. Maathai was also honored with an appointment as Goodwill Ambassador to the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem, where she serves in an advocacy role for the region's conservation and protection.

Professor Maathai is internationally recognized for her persistent struggle for democracy, human rights and environmental conservation. She and the Green Belt Movement have received numerous awards, most notably the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2005, Professor Maathai was honored by Time Magazine as one of 100 most influential people in the world, and by Forbes Magazine as one of 100 most powerful women in the world. In April 2006, the President of France honored Professor Maathai with France's highest honour, Legion d'Honneur.

She serves on the boards of organizations including the UN Secretary Generals Advisory Board on Disarmament, co-chair of the Congo Basin Fund, the Jane Goodall Institute, and the Women and Environment Development Organization (WEDO), among many others.

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