Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai is Honored in Chicago
> Presses on more tree-planting amid disturbing space
reports on Africa

By Symon G. Ogeto
Published: August 21, 2005

Chicago, IL -- Environmentalist and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Kenya’s Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources - Professor Wangari Maathai has expressed her dismay on other disturbing reports that Africa is at the height of environmental degeneration.

Over 180 guests gathered Sunday at the Consulate General of South Africa in Chicago to hear the 2004 Nobel Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai speak at a reception hosted in her honor by the Chicago Association for Kenyan Professionals (CAKP). (Photo by Martin Mbaya)

Maathai spoke on Aug 14 at a reception held in her honor by the Chicago Association for Kenyan Professionals (CAKP), a civic group that serves a growing number of professionals mostly from Kenya. The General Consulate of South Africa in Chicago where the reception was held helped co-host the function.

The laureate was responding to comments from early this month by Eileen Collins, commander of US shuttle Discovery who reported that she saw “massive burning taking place in the central part of Africa” while on a 14-day historic space mission.

What Commander Collins may have spotted, according to Maathai, may have been the dust particles caused by the deforestation effects of the area around the Congo Basin which spreads over 11 Central African countries. “The forest is important not only to Africa but to the rest of the world,” said Maathai.

Maathai said that her $1.3 million [monetary gift] that was part of the award would go toward expanding her conservation efforts beyond Kenya by establishing the Green Belt Movement International (GBMI).

The new body will continue her tree-planting work especially in Africa where she worries that if nothing is done, the threat of desertification is apparent and soon the entire continent may grow into a complete desert.

Maathai hopes that this body will expand to becoming a global center that will draw people from all over Africa, and indeed, the world in order to learn and share conservation experiences. In addition, Mathaai has a plan to create an endowment to fund the center and other initiatives.

Even though the idea [of Green Belt Movement International] is being shaped, Maathai said that the Green Belt Movement (greenbeltmovement.org) is still active and people can still lender their support to her present conservation work.

Green Belt Movement (GBM) is a grassroots non-governmental organization that has worked in environmental conservation and community development in Kenya for over 25 years.

Jacob Sitati, president of Chicago Association for Kenyan Professional (CAKP) at SAC presenting Prof. Wangari a plaque honoring her accomplishments on behalf of his association. Looking on is (LtoR) Hon. L. Ngaithe, Kenya's ambassador to the US, Consul General Yusuf Omar and Esther Fillmore of the South Africa Consulate in Chicago, Illinois (Photo by Martin Mbaya)

Presently, GBM is running a pilot program with the a forest preserve in the Aberdares range in central Kenya where locals are being encouraged to plant indigenous trees that are known to boost human immune systems.

“I know our leaders and African governments are trying”, said Maathai, “but they are pre-occupied with the next elections, poverty, starvation and other issues of the day. In spite of this, there is some apathy [among our people] that seems to restrain them from planting trees.”

On the positive side of Africa, Wangari was proud to state ongoing developments which include the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) which is designed to address the current challenges facing the African continent, the recent creation of a peer review mechanism among African heads of state were among the few she cited.

Wangari, whom the Africa Union has been tapped to mobilize the civil society, hopes the review will boost democracy and help shape positive governance among member countries.

Wangari commended the South Africa government for its recent initiative of mobilizing its citizens to uproot exotic trees from its forested catchment areas in the mountains, something Wangari said, is facing lots of resistance from her fellow legislators in Kenya. “A lot of top soil is being washed away every day because of these exotic tree plantations trees in our mountains.”

The laureate concluded her remarks with a reminder that each of us needs 10 trees to take care of the carbon dioxide we emit saying. “… wherever you go plant a tree to take of your carbon dioxide.”

Jacob Sitati, CAKP president said that hosting Wangari was quite an experience for him and his group. “Working with the South Africa Consulate was a gesture of partnership. I believe if we can leverage the likes of Wangari, the continent of Africa will no longer be a basket case as it has been ascribed previously.” Sitati presented a plaque to Maathai on behalf of his group.

Chuck Bowen, personal assistant to Richard M. Daley, Mayor of the City of Chicago, presented Maathai with a Letter of Welcome on behalf of the Mayor. Chicago, according to the mayor’s remarks [read from the letter], plants an average of 4,000 trees annually.

Leonard Ngaithe, Kenya’s ambassador to the United States, traveled from Washington, D.C. to welcome and help host Maathai together with CAKP and the Consulate General of South Africa. Ngaithe said that he was pleased at the success of the event and the level of professionalism even though it was planned at a very short notice. This was Ngaithe’s second trip to Chicago since he was deployed to Washington in May 2004.

“I was delighted to meet her and moved by her humility and the power of being straight forward especially in standing by her opinions” said Sarah Ogeto, director with Alternative Schools Network, Chicago-based non-for-profit that provides quality education with a specific emphasis on inner-city children, youth and adults.

Maathai arrived in Chicago on Aug 12 for a separate speaking engagement at the invitation of Shaklee Corporation, a leading health and wellness company based in Pleasanton, California. In mid June 2005, Shaklee announced a donation of $105,000 in proceeds to the Green Belt Movement as part of corporation’s drive to celebrate Earth Day 2005.