Wangari Maathai

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In 1977, the Kenyan academic Professor Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, a grassroots initiative which encouraged rural women to plant trees to restore local ecosystems and address their need for food, fodder and fuelwood. Maathai also campaigned to protect Nairobi’s green spaces, including Uhuru Park and Karura Forest, from government development. To date, the Green Belt Movement has planted more than 51 million trees in Kenya. In 2004, Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for her environmental work. The nature broadcaster Gillian Burke, who grew up on the outskirts of Nairobi and met Wangari Maathai as a child, reflects on the legacy of this larger-than-life environmental activist, and considers the role of tree planting in addressing the climate crisis. She says, “Wangari Maathai understood what people, especially rural women, really needed and married that with the needs of the environment.” Producer: Dan Hardoon Series Editor: David Prest A Whistledown Production in association with The Open University.