Wangari Maathai Essay

Wangari Maathai grew up being taught to love the environment and respect the fig tree. Which in her elders called the “Tree of God”. She did and like the roots of the fig tree she describes in her memoir unbowed. she was given a fertile environment to grow. Where there was no reason to fear or to have uncertainty. As her roots took hold she began to grown out of the ground and blossomed into a beautiful tree.
In the Mid 70’s kenya natural resources began to decline. There were streams in Nyeri she had known as a child that had dried up . Farms and plantations were replacing the forest many communities depended on for nutrition and energy. Like a big gust of wind shook her branches and leaves. It swayed her point where she decided to take

It helped her receive funding and status to mobilize thousand of women to plant trees to combat the environmental delegation that faced Kenya and all of Africa.
Wilhelm Elsrud an executed director at the norwegian forestry society heard about the Green Belt Movement and hired her as a coordinator.Wangari accepted the job because it would help her focus on energy and The Green Belt Movement.”they held seminars in the communities in native language of the people of the people, to generate participation”(pg.173). She had women share their experiences with delegated from different parts of the world. One of the persons was an american terry tempest williams, who took what she learned and applied the same Green Belt Movement Principles back at her home in Utah. Like Wangari, Terry mobilized her community to plant trees. By 1985 the Green Belt Movement Co sponsored many other in latin America, Asia, Europe, and Canada.
Her life was filled with personal losses and defeats, but she managed to inspire not only women and men in her country but the world Thousand of trees were planted to degradation of the earth so humanity can continue to be nourished by the the natural resources trees provided. she was awarded the nobel peace prize in 2004 for her contributions to