In honouring Prof Wangari Maathai, we’ve done well, but we’ve failed on articulating environmental issues

 Today marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of Prof Wangari Maathai. Although I never met her, I attended functions that she spoke at, and like so many of us working in conservation, I admired what she did a lot. She was a great inspiration to all Kenyans, and especially to women.

Many of us will remember the actions she took to protect Uhuru Park from developers. We remember perhaps even more vividly when she and other women undressed to protest police torture. Even at the end, she stood firm in her beliefs: not wanting a single tree to be felled for her coffin, she had it made from water hyacinth, bamboo and papyrus.

All of this shows her total commitment to conservation, sustainable development, democracy, women’s empowerment and ultimately, peaceful coexistence between people and nature. For this, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, becoming the first Kenyan and African woman to do so.

As we remember Prof Maathai today, it is an opportunity for us to consider her legacy and how we in Kenya are doing to make sure we continue what she started.

First, the situation for women in Kenya is much better, thanks in part to her inspiration. When she started, women were only just starting to come up. At that time, we did not have many leadership positions in government, business and civil society. She was telling women that we can do this, we can do what men can do, we can also be in positions where we can make decisions alongside men.

 Inequality

Today, women speak up and demand to be included and have a voice at the decision-making table. Empowering women is the single biggest force for positive change in the world today. However, despite progress, we are still witnessing a great deal of inequality, for example when it comes to land ownership. Therefore, there is a need for debate, education and awareness creation around this subject.

Second, is her legacy of forming mass movements. ProfMaathai said there are some things so important that we have to take a stand for them, and this must be a team effort, no-one can go it alone.

Today, thanks to our Constitution, people are much more able to campaign together for changes or to oppose things that they do not agree with. Movements have emerged to stop the Lamu coal plant, transform Karura forest in Nairobi (which Prof Maathai shed blood to protect), protect key water towers like the Mau, and stand up to land-grabs and lawless development.

I can, for example, compare Prof Maathai’s Green Belt Movement to the community-led conservation movement that is growing right now in Kenya. The Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association, supported by my organisation, The Nature Conservancy, and others, is seeing more and more communities apply to set up conservancies.

This is a strong movement of people campaigning to earn more benefits from what they are doing to conserve their environment, living alongside wildlife, or protecting nature, for the good of all. This is a continuation of Prof Maathai’s point that protected environments boost development, while degraded environments only fuel the vicious circle of poverty and under-development.

Finally, I think we need to acknowledge where we are failing her legacy, and that is by not continuously and powerfully talking about the risk of failing to conserve our environment.

 Making promises

Remember, as Prof Maathai noted: “The generation that destroys the environment is not the generation that pays the price. That is the problem.” She created a lot of awareness about the real issues, and I don’t think we are doing enough on that front.

Why is it that some in the elite in Nairobi think conservation means excluding communities? Why is it that people enter the government making promises about the environment then when they are there that dies down and we don’t see that spirit anymore?

It is because we who are in conservation must work harder, as Prof did, to rally support, talk about these things more and tell the facts. We need everyone to be engaged so that we get to the point of having the government realise it must lead on protecting our environments.

We might not have another Wangari Maathai fighting today’s environmental battles, which are gravely important because of climate change. But each of us can, in small ways, do our part. As she said: “You can make a lot of speeches, but the real thing is when you dig a hole, plant a tree, give it water and make it survive. That's what makes the difference”.

Rest in peace, Prof.

Munira Bashir is Kenya Programme Director for The Nature Conservancy