The rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands is an example of an undisturbed natural resource. Forest provides timber for humans; food and shelter for flora and the fauna. The nutrient cycle between organisms form food chains and biodiversity of species.

The Carson Fall in Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia is an example of undisturbed natural resource. Waterfalls provide spring water for humans, animals and plants for survival and also habitat for marine organisms. The water current can be used to turn turbines for hydroelectric generation.

The ocean is an example of a natural resource. Ocean waves can be used to generate wave power which is a renewable energy. Ocean water is important for salt production and providing habitat for deep water fishes. There are biodiversity of marine species in the sea where nutrient cycles are common.

Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems.

Natural resources are derived from the environment. Some of them are essential for our survival while most are used for satisfying our wants. Natural resources may be further classified in different ways.

Natural resources are materials and components (something that can be used) that can be found within the environment. Every man-made product is composed of natural resources (at its fundamental level). A natural resource may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, and air, as well as a living organism such as a fish, or it may exist in an alternate form which must be processed to obtain the resource such as metal ores, oil, and most forms of energy.

There is much debate worldwide over natural resource allocations, this is partly due to increasing scarcity (depletion of resources) but also because the exportation of natural resources is the basis for many economies (particularly for developed nations such as Australia).

Some Natural resources can be found everywhere such as sunlight and air, when this is so the resources is known as an ubiquitous (existing or being everywhere) resource. However most resources are not ubiquitous. They only occur in small sporadic areas; these resources are referred to as localized resources. There are very few resources that are considered inexhaustible (will not run out in foreseeable future) – these are solar radiation, geothermal energy, and air (though access to clean air may not be). The vast majority of resources are however exhaustible, which means they have a finite quantity, and can be depleted if managed improperly. The natural resources are materials, which living organisms can take from nature for sustaining their life or any components of the natural environment that can be utilized by man to promote his welfare is considered as natural resources.

Classification[link]

There are various methods of categorizing natural resources, these include source of origin, stage of development, and by their renewability, these classifications are described below. On the basis of origin, resources may be divided into:

• Biotic – Biotic resources are obtained from the biosphere (living and organic material), such as forests, animals, birds, and fish and the materials that can be obtained from them. Fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum are also included in this category because they are formed from decayed organic matter.
• Abiotic – Abiotic resources are those that come from non-living, non-organic material. Examples of abiotic resources include land, fresh water, air and heavy metals including ores such as gold, iron, copper, silver, etc.

Considering their stage of development, natural resources may be referred to in the following ways:

• Potential Resources – Potential resources are those that exist in a region and may be used in the future. For example, petroleum may exist in many parts of India, having sedimentary rocks but until the time it is actually drilled out and put into use, it remains a potential resource.
• Actual Resources – Actual resources are those that have been surveyed, their quantity and quality determined and are being used in present times. The development of an actual resource, such as wood processing depends upon the technology available and the cost involved.
• Reserve Resources – The part of an actual resource which can be developed profitably in the future is called a reserve resource.
• Stock Resources – Stock resources are those that have been surveyed but cannot be used by organisms due to lack of technology. For example: hydrogen.

Renewability is a very popular topic and many natural resources can be categorized as either renewable or non-renewable:

• Renewable resources are ones that can be replenished naturally. Some of these resources, like sunlight, air, wind, etc., are continuously available and their quantity is not noticeably affected by human consumption. Though many renewable resources do not have such a rapid recovery rate, these resources are susceptible to depletion by over-use. Resources from a human use perspective are classified as renewable only so long as the rate of replenishment/recovery exceeds that of the rate of consumption.

A picture of the Udachnaya pipe, an open-pit diamond mine in Siberia. An example of a non-renewable natural resource.

• Non-renewable resources are resources that form extremely slowly and those that do not naturally form in the environment. Minerals are the most common resource included in this category. By the human perspective, resources are non-renewable when their rate of consumption exceeds the rate of replenishment/recovery; a good example of this are fossil fuels, which are in this category because their rate of formation is extremely slow (potentially millions of years), meaning they are considered non-renewable. Some resources actually naturally deplete in amount without human interference, the most notable of these being radio-active elements such as uranium, which naturally decay into heavy metals. Of these, the metallic minerals can be re-used by recycling them,^[1] but coal and petroleum cannot be recycled.^[2]

Wind is the natural resource that can be used to generate wind power. These 5MW wind turbines on this wind farm 28 km off the coast of Belgium

.

Depletion[link]

In recent years, the depletion of natural resources has become a major focus of governments and organizations such as the United Nations (UN). This is evident in the UN’s Agenda 21 Section Two which outlines the necessary steps to be taken by countries to sustain their natural resources.^[4] The depletion of natural resources is considered to be a sustainable development issue.^[5] The term sustainable development has many interpretations, most notably the Brundtland Commission’s ‘to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’,^[6] however in broad terms it is balancing the needs of the planet’s people and species now and in the future.^[4] In regards to natural resources, depletion is of concern for sustainable development as it has the ability to degrade current environments^[7] and potential to impact the needs of future generations.^[5]

Depletion of Natural Resources is associated with social inequity. Considering most biodiversity are located in developing countries,^[8] depletion of this resource could result in losses of ecosystem services for these countries.^[9] Some view this depletion as a major source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.^[10]

At present, with it being the year of the forest,^[11] there is particular concern for rainforest regions which hold most of the Earth's biodiversity.^[11] According to Nelson^[12] deforestation and degradation affect 8.5% of the world’s forests with 30% of the Earth’s surface already cropped. If we consider that 80% of people rely on medicines obtained from plants and ¾ of the world’s prescription medicines have ingredients taken from plants,^[9] loss of the world’s rainforests could result in a loss of finding more potential life saving medicines.^[13]

The depletion of natural resources is caused by ‘direct drivers of change’^[12] such as Mining, petroleum extraction, fishing and forestry as well as ‘indirect drivers of change’ such as demography, economy, society, politics and technology.^[12] The current practice of Agriculture is another factor causing depletion of natural resources. For example the depletion of nutrients in the soil due to excessive use of nitrogen^[12] and desertification^[4] The depletion of natural resources is a continuing concern for society. This is seen in the cited quote given by Theodore Roosevelt, a well-known conservationist and former United States president, was opposed to unregulated natural resource extraction.

Protection[link]

In 1982 the UN developed the World Charter for Nature in which it recognised the need to protect nature from further depletion due to human activity. They state the measures needed to be taken at all societal levels, from international right down to individual, to protect nature. They outline the need for sustainable use of natural resources and suggest that the protection of resources should be incorporated into the law system at state and international level.^[14] To look at the importance of protecting natural resources further. The World Ethic of Sustainability, developed by the IUCN, WWF and the UNEP in 1990^[15] which set out eight values for sustainability, include the need to protect natural resources from depletion. Since these documents, there have been many measures taken to protect natural resources, some of these ways include Conservation biology and Habitat Conservation.

Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction.^[16][17] It is an interdisciplinary subject drawing on sciences, economics, and the practice of natural resource management.^{[18][19][20][21]} The term conservation biology was introduced as the title of a conference held University of California at San Diego in La Jolla, California in 1978 organized by biologists Bruce Wilcox and Michael Soulé.

Habitat conservation is a land management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore, habitat areas for wild plants and animals, especially conservation reliant species, and prevent their extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range.^[22]

Management[link]

Natural resource management is a discipline in the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations.

Management of natural resources involves identifying who has the right to use the resources and who does not for defining the boundaries of the resource.^[23] The resources are managed by the users according to the rules governing of when and how the resource is used depending on local condition.^[24]

A successful management of natural resources should engage the community because of the nature of the shared resources the individuals who are affected by the rules can participate in setting or changing them.^[23] The users have the rights to device their own management institutions and plans under the recognition by the government. The right to resources includes land, water, fisheries and pastoral rights.^[24] The users or parties accountable to the users have to actively monitor and ensure the utilisation of the resource compliance with the rules and to impose penalty on those peoples who violates the rules.^[23] These conflicts are resolved in a quick and low cost manner by the local institution according to the seriousness and context of the offence.^[24]

See also[link]

• Resource

References[link]

James G. Rickards is an American lawyer, economist, and investment banker with 35 years of experience working in capital markets on Wall Street. He is a writer and is a regular commentator on finance. Rickards advised clients of an impending financial collapse, of a decline in the dollar and a sharp rise in the price of gold, all years in advance. He believes the United States needs to go back to a gold standard and was one of the first to promote this view.^{[citation needed]} Rickards is the author of The New York Times bestseller Currency Wars, published in 2011.

Biography[link]

Rickards graduated from Cape May High School in Cape May, New Jersey in 1969.^[1] He graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in 1973 with a B.A. degree with honors and in 1974, from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. with an M.A.^[2] in international economics. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and an LL.M in taxation from New York University School of Law.^[3]

In 1981, Rickards was involved in the Iran hostage crisis.^[4] As general counsel for the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM),^[5][6] he was the principal negotiator in the 1998 bailout of LTCM^[7] by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Rickards worked on Wall Street for 35 years.^[8] In 2001, he began using his financial expertise to aid the U.S. national security community and the U.S. Department of Defense.^[9] From 2002 to 2006, he advised clients of an impending financial collapse, of a decline in the dollar and of a sharp rise in the price of gold, years before any of these events took place.^[10]

Rickards is now the senior managing director for market intelligence at Omnis, Inc.,^[7] a consulting firm.^[3] On March 24, 2009, Rickards presented his view at a symposium at Johns Hopkins, that the U.S. dollar is vulnerable to attack from foreign governments through accumulation of gold and establishment of a new global currency.^[11] The same week, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, called for a new currency to be introduced and operated by the International Monetary Fund to replace the dollar as the basic unit of international commerce.^[11]

On September 10, 2009, Rickards testified before the U.S. House of Representatives about the risks of financial modeling, VaR, and the 2008 financial crisis.^[12]

On January 29, 2012, on Bob Brinker's radio program, Rickards stated his belief that the U.S. has been in a depression since 2007. He backed this assertion by pointing out the existence of a major component of previously seen U.S. depressions, the prolonged high rate of unemployment.

Rickards lives in Darien, Connecticut, where he is on the Republican Town Committee.^[13]

Gold standard[link]

Rickards was one of the first to say that the United States should return to a gold standard, which would be more stable^[14] than fiat money. Rickards believes that it is inevitable that the U.S. will return to a gold standard and says the question is whether the process of returning to the gold standard will be a smooth process with public debate, congressional hearings, commissions and government announcements that will enable markets to adjust or if it will be handled in a chaotic fashion with collateral damage, civil unrest and some sort of domestic military operations.^[14] Rickards says currently, the U.S. is following the chaotic path.^[14] He says that a return to a gold standard would enable people to have confidence in the currency because they would know they could convert their paper money to gold at any time and the government would make payment and this would keep the system honest.^[14] Rickards believes that on an open market, the price of gold would be around $7,000 an ounce.^[14] He says the target price is between $5,000 and $10,000 per troy ounce in current U.S. dollars.^[15]

Quotes[link]

Rickards writes and speaks on geopolitics, national security, and global capital markets.^[9] He has written op-ed columns for the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Washington Post and has been interviewed in The Wall Street Journal and on CNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, Bloomberg, C-Span, and is a "resident expert" at King World News.^[9]

On the LTCM bailout and the late-2000s financial crisis:
"What strikes me now, looking back, is how nothing was changed: no lessons were applied. Even though the lessons were obvious, in 1998. […] Regulatory oversight needed to be ramped up […] The government did just the opposite. Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999, so that banks could become hedge funds. The U.S., in effect stared near-catastrophe in the eye, with LTCM, and decided to double down."^[8]

On national security:
"A lot of my clients are in the national security area, so I work a lot with the [U.S.] Department of Defense and the Director of National Intelligence and others. We obviously spend a lot of time thinking about threats to national security. And I have spent a lot of time in the counter-terrorism field and terrorist finance and other aspects of that. And if I had to rank threats to national security, I would rank Ben Bernanke above Osama bin Laden. […] Ben Bernanke is not on the run. He's sitting in a very high office but he's actually a greater threat because of what he is doing to destroy the [U.S.] dollar."^[14][16]

On the Federal Reserve:
"I think there's a huge credibility problem to begin with. Here's the Federal Reserve that has done nothing right as far back as I can recall. They missed the tech bubble, they missed the housing bubble, they kept interest rates too low for too long and the [financial] crisis, they underestimated the severity of it. When the crisis hit, they had no idea it was going to get that bad. Then they over-reacted by giving too much money away on no conditions whatsoever. And even to this day, they continue to believe the economy is getting better."^[14]

Publications[link]

Rickards' first book, Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis, was published on November 10, 2011 by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Group.^[17] In it, Rickards argues that currency wars are not just an economic or monetary concern, but a national security concern. He maintains that the United States is facing serious threats to its national security, from clandestine gold purchases by China to the hidden agendas of sovereign wealth funds and that greater than any single threat is the very real danger of the collapse of the dollar itself. Rickards explains that the Federal Reserve is involved in what he calls "the greatest gamble in the history of finance," via a sustained effort to stimulate the economy by printing money on a trillion-dollar scale.

Selected articles

• James G. Rickards, "A Mountain, Overlooked" The Washington Post (October 2, 2008). Retrieved May 16, 2011
• Charles Duelfer and Jim Rickards, "Financial Time Bombs" The New York Times (December 20, 2008). Retrieved May 16, 2011
• James Rickards, "How markets attacked the Greek piñata" The Financial Times (February 11, 2010). Retrieved May 16, 2011 (Registration required)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lori Ann LaRocco, Interview with Jim Rickards CNBC (January 13, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011
• Ron Hera, "Interview: Jim Rickards on Inflation and Currency Wars" Financial Sense (February 4, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011
• Jim Rickards - "Just like the 1930s" YouTube. (March 19, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011
• "Jim Rickards on Quantitative Easing… Currency War… Inflation… Political Instability" Fiat Collapse blog, with video link to Rickards on Fox News (January 29, 2011). Retrieved May 14, 2011
• Currency Wars on Amazon
• Currency Wars on Barnes and Noble

Wangari Maathai
Wangari Maathai in 2006
Born	Wangari Muta (1940-04-01)1 April 1940 Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District, Kenya
Died	25 September 2011(2011-09-25) (aged 71) Nairobi, Kenya
Ethnicity	Kikuyu
Citizenship	Kenyan
Education	B.S. biology M.S. biological sciences Ph.D. veterinary anatomy
Alma mater	Mount St. Scholastica College University of Pittsburgh University College of Nairobi
Occupation	Environmentalist, Political activist
Known for	Green Belt Movement
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize

Wangari Muta Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011) was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 1986, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, and in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." Maathai was an elected member of Parliament and served as assistant minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005. Furthermore she was an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council. In 2011, Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer.

Early life and education 1940–1971[link]

On 1 April 1940, Maathai was born in the village of Ihithe, Nyeri District, in the central highlands of the colony of Kenya. Her family was Kikuyu, the most populous ethnic group in Kenya, and had lived in the area for several generations.^[1] Around 1943, Maathai's family relocated to a white-owned farm in the Rift Valley, near the town of Nakuru, where her father had found work.^[2] Late in 1947, she returned to Ihithe with her mother, as two of her brothers were attending primary school in the village, and there was no schooling available on the farm where her father worked. Her father remained at the farm.^[3] Shortly afterward, at the age of eight, she joined her brothers at Ihithe Primary School.^[4]

At age eleven, Maathai moved to St. Cecilia's Intermediate Primary School, a boarding school at the Mathari Catholic Mission in Nyeri.^[5] Maathai studied at St. Cecilia's for four years. During this time, she became fluent in English and converted to Catholicism. She also was involved with the Christian society known as the Legion of Mary, whose members attempted "to serve God by serving fellow human beings."^[6] Studying at St. Cecilia's, Maathai was sheltered from the ongoing Mau Mau Uprising, which forced her mother to move from their homestead to an emergency village in Ihithe.^[7] When she completed her studies there in 1956, she was rated first in her class, and was granted admission to the only Catholic high school for girls in Kenya, Loreto High School Limuru in Limuru.^[8]

After graduating from Loreto-Limuru in 1959, she planned to attend the University of East Africa in Kampala, Uganda. However, the end of the colonial period of East Africa was nearing, and Kenyan politicians, such as Tom Mboya, were proposing ways to make education in Western nations available to promising students. John F. Kennedy, then a United States Senator, agreed to fund such a program through the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, initiating what became known as the Kennedy Airlift or Airlift Africa. Maathai became one of about three hundred Kenyans chosen to study at American universities in September 1960.^[9]

Maathai received a scholarship to study at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College), in Atchison, Kansas. At Mount St. Scholastica, she majored in biology, with minors in chemistry and German.^[10] After receiving her bachelor of science degree in 1964, she studied at the University of Pittsburgh for a master's degree in biology. Her graduate studies there were funded by the Africa-America Institute,^[11] and during her time in Pittsburgh, she first experienced environmental restoration, as local environmentalists pushed to rid the city of air pollution.^[12] In January 1966, Maathai was awarded her MSc in biological sciences,^[13] and was appointed to a position as research assistant to a professor of zoology at University College of Nairobi.^[14]

Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai dropped her Christian name, preferring to be known by her birth name, Wangari Muta.^[15] When she arrived at the university to start her new job, she was informed that it had been given to someone else. Maathai believed this was because of gender and tribal bias.^[16] After a job search lasting two months, Professor Reinhold Hofmann, from the University of Giessen in Germany, offered her a job as a research assistant in the microanatomy section of the newly established Department of Veterinary Anatomy in the School of Veterinary Medicine at University College of Nairobi.^[17] In April 1966, she met Mwangi Mathai, another Kenyan who had studied in America, who would later become her husband.^[18] She also rented a small shop in the city, and established a general store, at which her sisters worked. In 1967, at the urging of Professor Hofmann, she traveled to the University of Giessen in Germany in pursuit of a doctorate. She studied both at Giessen and the University of Munich.

In the spring of 1969, she returned to Nairobi to continue her studies at the University College of Nairobi as an assistant lecturer. In May, she and Mwangi Mathai were married.^[19] Later that year, she became pregnant with her first child, and her husband campaigned for a seat in Parliament, narrowly losing. During the course of the election, Tom Mboya, who had been instrumental in founding the program which sent her overseas, was assassinated. This led to President Kenyatta effectually ending multi-party democracy in Kenya. Shortly after, her first son, Waweru, was born.^[20] In 1971, she became the first Eastern African woman to receive a Ph.D., when she was granted a Doctorate of Anatomy^[13] from the University College of Nairobi, which became the University of Nairobi the following year. She completed her dissertation on the development and differentiation of gonads in bovines.^[21] Her daughter, Wanjira, was born in December 1971.

Activism and political life 1972–1977[link]

Maathai continued to teach at Nairobi, becoming a senior lecturer in anatomy in 1974, chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy in 1976 and associate professor in 1977. She was the first woman in Nairobi appointed to any of these positions.^[22] During this time, she campaigned for equal benefits for the women working on the staff of the university, going so far as to attempt to turn the academic staff association of the university into a union, in order to negotiate for benefits. The courts denied this bid, but many of her demands for equal benefits were later met.^[23]

In addition to her work at the University of Nairobi, Maathai became involved in a number of civic organizations in the early 1970s. She was a member of the Nairobi branch of the Kenya Red Cross Society, becoming its director in 1973. She was a member of the Kenya Association of University Women. Following the establishment of the Environment Liaison Centre in 1974, Maathai was asked to be a member of the local board, eventually becoming the chair of the board. The Environment Liaison Centre worked to promote the participation of non-governmental organizations in the work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), whose headquarters was established in Nairobi following the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972. Maathai also joined the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK).^[24] Through her work at these various volunteer associations, it became evident to Maathai that the root of most of Kenya's problems was environmental degradation.^[25]

In 1974, Maathai's family expanded to include her third child, Muta. Her husband again campaigned for a seat in Parliament, hoping to represent the Lang'ata constituency, and won. During the course of his campaign, he had promised to find jobs to limit the rising unemployment in Kenya. These promises led Maathai to connect her ideas of environmental restoration to providing jobs for the unemployed, and led to the founding of Envirocare Ltd., a business that involved the planting of trees to conserve the environment, involving ordinary people in the process. This led to the planting of her first tree nursery, collocated with a government tree nursery in Karura Forest. Envirocare ran into multiple problems, primarily dealing with funding. The project failed, however, through conversations concerning Envirocare and her work at the Environment Liaison Centre, UNEP made it possible to send Maathai to the first UN conference on human settlements, known as Habitat I, in June 1976.^[26]

In 1977, Maathai spoke to the NCWK concerning her attendance at Habitat I. She proposed further tree planting, which the council supported. On 5 June 1977, marking World Environment Day, the NCWK marched in a procession from Kenyatta International Conference Centre in downtown Nairobi to Kamukunji park on the outskirts of the city where they planted seven trees in honor of historical community leaders. This was the first "Green Belt" which was first known as the "Save the Land Harambee" and then became the Green Belt Movement.^[27] Maathai encouraged the women of Kenya to plant tree nurseries throughout the country, searching nearby forests for seeds to grow trees native to the area. She agreed to pay the women a small stipend for each seedling which was later planted elsewhere.^[28]

Personal problems 1977–1979[link]

Maathai and her husband, Mwangi Mathai, separated in 1977. After a lengthy separation, Mwangi filed for divorce in 1979. Mwangi was said to have believed Wangari was "too strong-minded for a woman" and that he was "unable to control her". In addition to naming her as "cruel" in court filings, he publicly accused her of adultery with another Member of Parliament,^[29] which in turn was thought to cause his high blood pressure and the judge ruled in Mwangi's favour. Shortly after the trial, in an interview with Viva magazine, Maathai referred to the judge as either incompetent or corrupt.^[29] The interview later led the judge to charge Maathai with contempt of court. She was found guilty and sentenced to six months in jail. After three days in Lang'ata Women's Prison in Nairobi, her lawyer formulated a statement which the court found sufficient for her release. Shortly after the divorce, her former husband sent a letter via his lawyer demanding that Maathai drop his surname but she instead chose to add an extra "a" instead.^[30][31]

The divorce had been costly, and with lawyers' fees and the loss of her husband's income, Maathai found it difficult to provide for herself and her children on her university wages. An opportunity arose to work for the Economic Commission for Africa through the United Nations Development Programme. As this job required extended travel throughout Africa and was based primarily in Lusaka, Zambia, she was unable to bring her children with her. Maathai chose to send them to her ex-husband and take the job. While she visited them regularly, they lived with their father until 1985.^[32]

Political problems 1979–1982[link]

In 1979, shortly after the divorce, Maathai ran for the position of chairman of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK). The NCWK was an umbrella organization consisting of many different women's organizations in the country. The new President of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, was attempting to limit the amount of influence those of the Kikuyu ethnicity held in the country, including in volunteer civic organizations such as the NCWK. She lost this election by three votes, but was overwhelmingly chosen to be the vice-chairman of the organization. The following year, Maathai again ran for chairman of the NCWK. Again she was opposed, she believes, by the government. When it became apparent that Maathai was going to win the election, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, a member organization which represented a majority of Kenya's rural women and whose leader was close to arap Moi, withdrew from the NCWK. Maathai was then elected chairman of the NCWK unopposed. However, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake came to receive a majority of the financial support for women's programs in the country, and NCWK was left virtually bankrupt. Future funding was much more difficult to come by, but the NCWK survived by increasing its focus on the environment and making its presence and work known. Maathai continued to be reelected to serve as chairman of the organization every year until she retired from the position in 1987.^[33]

In 1982, the Parliamentary seat representing her home region of Nyeri was open, and Maathai decided to campaign for the seat. As required by law, she resigned her position with the University of Nairobi to campaign for office. The courts decided that she was ineligible to run for office because she had not re-registered to vote in the last presidential election in 1979. Maathai believed this to be false and illegal and brought the matter to court. The court was to meet at nine in the morning, and if she received a favourable ruling, was required to present her candidacy papers in Nyeri by three in the afternoon that same day. The judge disqualified her from running on a technicality. When she requested her job back, she was denied. She believes this was because President Daniel arap Moi, who she deemed to be against her, was also the Chancellor of the University of Nairobi. As she lived in university housing and was no longer a member of staff, she was evicted from her home.^[34]

Green Belt Movement[link]

Maathai moved into a small home she had purchased years before, and focused on the NCWK while she searched for employment. In the course of her work through the NCWK, she was approached by Wilhelm Elsrud, executive director of the Norwegian Forestry Society. He wished to partner with the Green Belt Movement and offered her the position of coordinator. Employed again, Maathai poured her efforts into the Green Belt Movement. Along with the partnership for the Norwegian Forestry Society, the movement had also received "seed money" from the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women. These funds allowed for the expansion of the movement, for hiring additional employees to oversee the operations, and for continuing to pay a small stipend to the women who planted seedlings throughout the country. It also allowed her to refine the operations of the movement, paying a small stipend to the women's husbands and sons who were literate and able to keep accurate records of seedlings planted.^[35]

In 1985, the UN held the third global women's conference in Nairobi. During the conference, Maathai arranged seminars and presentations to describe the work the Green Belt Movement was doing in Kenya. She escorted delegates to see nurseries and plant trees. She met Peggy Snyder, the head of UNIFEM, and Helvi Sipilä, the first woman appointed a UN assistant secretary general. The conference helped to expand funding for the Green Belt Movement and led to the movement's establishing itself outside of Kenya. In 1986, with funding from UNEP, the movement expanded throughout Africa and led to the foundation of the Pan-African Green Belt Network. Forty-five representatives from fifteen African countries travelled to Kenya over the next three years to learn how to set up similar programs in their own countries to combat desertification, deforestation, water crises, and rural hunger. The attention the movement received in the media led to Maathai's being honoured with numerous awards. The government of Kenya, however, demanded that the Green Belt Movement separate from the NCWK, believing the latter should focus solely on women's issues, not the environment. Therefore, in 1987, Maathai stepped down as chairman of the NCWK and focused her attention on the newly separate non-governmental organization.^[36]

Government intervention[link]

In the latter half of the 1980s, the Kenyan government came down against Maathai and the Green Belt Movement. The single-party democracy was against many of the stances the movement taught pertaining to rights and democracy. The government invoked a colonial-era law prohibiting groups of more than nine people from meeting without first obtaining a government license. In 1988, the Green Belt Movement carried out pro-democracy activities such as registering voters for the election and pressing for constitutional reform and freedom of expression. The government, however, was not interested in reform and carried out electoral fraud in the elections to maintain power.^[37]

In October 1989, Maathai learned of a plan to construct the 60-story Kenya Times Media Trust Complex in Uhuru Park. The complex was intended to house the headquarters of KANU, the Kenya Times newspaper, a trading centre, offices, an auditorium, galleries, shopping malls, and parking space for two thousand cars. The plan also included a large statue of President arap Moi. Maathai wrote many letters in protest: the Kenya Times, the Office of the President, the Nairobi city commission, the provincial commissioner, the minister for environment and natural resources, the executive directors of UNEP and the Environment Liaison Centre International, the executive director of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the ministry of public works, and the permanent secretary in the department of international security and administration all received letters. She also wrote to Sir John Johnson, the British high commissioner in Nairobi, urging him to intervene with Robert Maxwell, a major shareholder in the project, equating the construction of a tower in Uhuru Park to such construction in Hyde Park or Central Park and maintaining that it could not be tolerated.^[38]

The government refused to respond to her inquiries and protests, instead responding through the media that Maathai was "a crazy woman"; that denying the project in Uhuru Park would take more than a small portion of public park land; and proclaiming the project as a "fine and magnificent work of architecture" opposed by only the "ignorant few." On 8 November 1989, Parliament expressed outrage at Maathai's actions, complaining of her letters to foreign organizations and calling the Green Belt Movement a bogus organization and its members "a bunch of divorcees". They suggested that if Maathai was so comfortable writing to Europeans, perhaps she should go live in Europe.^[39]

Despite Maathai's protests, as well as popular protest growing throughout the city, ground was broken at Uhuru Park for construction of the complex on 15 November 1989. Maathai sought an injunction in the Kenya High Court to halt construction, but the case was thrown out on 11 December. In his first public comments pertaining to the project, President arap Moi said those who opposed the project had "insects in their heads." On 12 December, in Uhuru Park, during a speech celebrating independence from the British, President Moi suggested Maathai be a proper woman in the African tradition and respect men and be quiet.^[40] She was forced by the government to vacate her office, and the Green Belt Movement was moved into her home. The government then audited the Green Belt Movement in an apparent attempt to shut it down. Despite all this, her protests, the government's response — and the media coverage it garnered — led foreign investors to cancel the project in January 1990.^[41][42]

In January 1992, it came to the attention of Maathai and other pro-democracy activists that a list of people were targeted for assassination and that a government-sponsored coup was possible. Maathai's name was on the list. The pro-democracy group, known as the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), presented its information to the media, calling for a general election. Later that day, Maathai received a warning that one of their members had been arrested. Maathai decided to barricade herself in her home. Shortly after, police arrived and surrounded the house. She was besieged for three days before police cut through the bars she had installed on her windows, came in, and arrested her. She and the other pro-democracy activists who had been arrested were charged with spreading malicious rumours, sedition and treason. After a day and a half in jail, they were brought to a hearing and released on bail. A variety of international organizations and eight senators (including Al Gore and Edward M. Kennedy) put pressure on the government of Kenya to substantiate the charges against the pro-democracy activists or risk damaging relations with the United States. In November 1992, the government of Kenya dropped the charges.^[43]

On 28 February 1992, while released on bail, Maathai and others took part in a hunger strike in a corner of Uruhu Park, which they labelled Freedom Corner, to pressure the government to release political prisoners. After four days of the hunger strike, on March 3, 1992, the police forcibly removed the protesters. Maathai and three others were knocked unconscious by police and hospitalized.^[44] President Daniel arap Moi called her "a mad woman" who is "a threat to the order and security of the country".^[45] The attack drew international criticism. The US State Department said it was "deeply concerned" by the violence and by the forcible removal of the hunger strikers.^[46] When the political prisoners were not released, the protesters — mostly mothers of those in prison — moved their protest to All Saints Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican Archbishop in Kenya, across from Uhuru Park. The protest there continued, with Maathai contributing frequently, until early 1993, when the prisoners were finally released.^[47]

During this time, Maathai was being recognized with various awards internationally, but the government of Kenya did not appreciate her work. In 1991 she received the Goldman Environmental Prize in San Francisco and the Hunger Project's Africa Prize for Leadership in London. CNN aired a three-minute segment concerning the Goldman prize, but when it aired in Kenya, that segment had been edited out. In June 1992, during the lengthy protest at Uhuru Park, both Maathai and President arap Moi travelled to Rio de Janeiro for the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit). The government of Kenya accused Maathai of inciting women and encouraging them to strip at Freedom Corner, urging that she not be allowed to speak at the summit. In spite of this, Maathai was chosen to be a chief spokesperson at the summit.^[48]

Push for democracy[link]

During the first multi-party election of Kenya, in 1992, Maathai strove to unite the opposition and promote free and fair elections in Kenya. The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) had fractured into FORD-Kenya (led by Oginga Odinga) and FORD-Asili (led by Kenneth Matiba); Mwai Kibaki, the former vice president, had left the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, and formed the Democratic Party. Maathai and many others believed such a fractured opposition would lead to KANU's retaining control of the country, so they formed the Middle Ground Group in an effort to unite the opposition. Maathai was chosen to serve as its chairperson. Also during the election, Maathai and like-minded opposition members formed the Movement for Free and Fair Elections. Despite their efforts, the opposition did not unite, and the ruling KANU party used intimidation and state-held media to win the election, retaining control of parliament.^[49]

The following year, tribal clashes occurred throughout Kenya. Maathai believed they were incited by the government, who had warned of stark consequences to multi-party democracy. Maathai travelled with friends and the press to areas of violence in order to encourage them to cease fighting. With the Green Belt Movement she planted "trees of peace," but before long her actions were opposed by the government. The conflict areas were labeled as "no go zones", and in February 1993 the president claimed that Maathai had masterminded a distribution of leaflets inciting Kikuyus to attack Kalenjins. After her friend and supporter Dr. Makanga was kidnapped, Maathai chose to go into hiding. While in hiding, Maathai was invited to a meeting in Tokyo of the Green Cross International, an environmental organization recently founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. When Maathai responded that she could not attend as she did not believe the government would allow her to leave the country and she was in hiding, Gorbachev pressured the government of Kenya to allow her to travel freely. President arap Moi denied limiting her travel, and she was allowed to leave the country, although too late for the meeting in Tokyo. Maathai was again recognized internationally, and she flew to Scotland to receive the Edinburgh Medal in April 1993. In May she went to Chicago to receive the Jane Addams International Women's Leadership Award, and in June she attended the UN's World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna.^[50]

During the elections of 1997, Maathai again wished to unite the opposition in order to defeat the ruling party. In November, less than two months before the election, she decided that she would run for parliament and for president as a candidate of the Liberal Party. Her intentions were widely questioned in the press; many believed she should simply stick to running the Green Belt Movement and stay out of politics. On the day of the election, a rumour that Maathai had withdrawn from the election and endorsed another candidate was printed in the media. Maathai garnered few votes and lost the election.^[51]

In the summer of 1998, Maathai learned of a government plan to privatize large areas of public land in the Karura Forest, just outside Nairobi, and give it to political supporters. Maathai protested against the privatization through letters to the government and the press. She went with the Green Belt Movement to Karura Forest, planting trees and protesting the destruction of the forest. On 8 January 1999, a group of protesters including Maathai, six opposition MPs, journalists, international observers, and Green Belt members and supporters returned to the forest to plant a tree in protest. The entry to the forest was guarded by a large group of men. When she tried to plant a tree in an area that had been designated to be cleared for a golf course, the group was attacked. Many of the protesters were injured, including Maathai, four MPs, some of the journalists, and German environmentalists. When she reported the attack to the police, they refused to return with her to the forest to arrest her attackers. However, the attack had been filmed by Maathai's supporters, and the event provoked international outrage.^[41][52] Student protests broke out throughout Nairobi, and some of these groups were violently broken up by the police. Protests continued until 16 August 1999, when the president announced that he was banning all allocation of public land.^[53]

In 2001, the government was again planning to take public forest land and give it to its supporters. While protesting the land-grab and collecting petition signatures on 7 March 2001, in Wang'uru village near Mount Kenya, Maathai was again arrested. The following day, following international and popular protest at her arrest, she was released without being charged. On 7 July 2001, shortly after planting trees at Freedom Corner in Uhuru Park in Nairobi to commemorate Saba Saba Day, Maathai was again arrested. Later that evening, she was again released without being charged.^[54] In January 2002, Maathai returned to teaching as the Dorothy McCluskey Visiting Fellow for Conservation at the Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She remained there until June 2002, teaching a course on sustainable development focused on the work of the Green Belt Movement.^[55]

Election to parliament[link]

Upon her return to Kenya, Maathai again campaigned for parliament in the 2002 elections, this time as a candidate of the National Rainbow Coalition, the umbrella organization which finally united the opposition. On 27 December 2002, the Rainbow Coalition defeated the ruling party Kenya African National Union, and in her constituency Maathai won with an overwhelming 98% of the vote.^[56] In January 2003, she was appointed Assistant Minister in the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources and served in that capacity until November 2005.^[13] She founded the Mazingira Green Party of Kenya in 2003 to allow candidates to run on a platform of conservation as embodied by the Green Belt Movement. It is a member of the Federation of Green Parties of Africa and the Global Greens.^[57]

[edit] Nobel Peace Prize 2004

Wangari Maathai was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her "contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".^[58] She had received a call from Ole Danbolt Mjos, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, on 8 October informing her of the news.^[59][60] She became the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to win the prize.

AIDS[link]

Controversy arose when it was reported by The Standard that Maathai had claimed HIV/AIDS was "deliberately created by Western scientists to decimate the African population."^[61] Maathai denied making the allegations, but The Standard has stood by its reports.^[61]

In a 2004 interview with Time, in response to questions concerning that report, Maathai replied, "I have no idea who created AIDS and whether it is a biological agent or not. But I do know things like that don't come from the moon. I have always thought that it is important to tell people the truth, but I guess there is some truth that must not be too exposed," and when asked what she meant, she continued, "I'm referring to AIDS. I am sure people know where it came from. And I'm quite sure it did not come from the monkeys."^[62]

In response she issued the following statement:

Later life 2005–2011[link]

Maathai, holding a trophy awarded to her by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights

Maathai and then U.S. Senator Barack Obama in Nairobi in 2006

On 28 March 2005, Maathai was elected the first president of the African Union's Economic, Social and Cultural Council and was appointed a goodwill ambassador for an initiative aimed at protecting the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem.^[64] In 2006 she was one of the eight flagbearers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony. Also on 21 May 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by and gave the commencement address at Connecticut College. She supported the International Year of Deserts and Desertification program. In November 2006, she spearheaded the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign. Maathai was one of the founders of the Nobel Women's Initiative along with sister Nobel Peace laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Six women representing North America and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa decided to bring together their experiences in a united effort for peace with justice and equality. It is the goal of the Nobel Women's Initiative to help strengthen work being done in support of women's rights around the world.^[65]

In August 2006, then United States Senator Barack Obama traveled to Kenya. His father was educated in America through the same program as Maathai. She and the Senator met and planted a tree together in Uhuru Park in Nairobi. Obama called for freedom of the press to be respected, saying, "Press freedom is like tending a garden; it continually has to be nurtured and cultivated. The citizenry has to value it because it's one of those things that can slip away if we're not vigilant." He deplored global ecological losses, singling out President George W. Bush's refusal to join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its subsidiary, the Kyoto Protocol.^[66]

Maathai was defeated in the Party of National Unity's primary elections for its parliamentary candidates in November 2007 and chose to instead run as the candidate of a smaller party.^[67] She was defeated in the December 2007 parliamentary election. She called for a recount of votes in the presidential election (officially won by Mwai Kibaki, but disputed by the opposition) in her constituency, saying that both sides should feel the outcome was fair and that there were indications of fraud.^[68]

In June 2009, Maathai was named as one of PeaceByPeace.com's first peace heroes.^[69] Until her death, Maathai served on the Eminent Advisory Board^[70] of the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA).

Wangari Maathai died of complications arising from ovarian cancer while receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital on 25 September 2011.^[71]

Selected publications[link]

• The Green Belt Movement: sharing the approach and the experience (1985)
• The bottom is heavy too: even with the Green Belt Movement : the Fifth Edinburgh Medal Address (1994)
• Bottle-necks of development in Africa (1995)
• The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women, and the Environment (2002)
• Unbowed: A Memoir (2006)
• Reclaiming rights and resources women, poverty and environment (2007)
• Rainwater Harvesting (2008)
• State of the world's minorities 2008: events of 2007 (2008)
• The Challenge for Africa (2009)
• Replenishing the Earth (2010) ISBN 978-0-307-59114-2

Honors[link]

• 1984: Right Livelihood Award (a.k.a. "Alternative Nobel Prize")
• 1986: Better World Society Award
• 1987: Global 500 Roll of Honour
• 1991: Goldman Environmental Prize
• 1991: The Hunger Project's Africa Prize for Leadership^[72]
• 1993: Edinburgh Medal (for "Outstanding contribution to Humanity through Science")
• 1993: Jane Addams Leadership Award
• 1993: Benedictine College Offeramus Medal^[73]
• 1994: The Golden Ark Award
• 2001: The Juliet Hollister Award
• 2003: Global Environment Award, World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations
• 2004: Conservation Scientist Award from Columbia University
• 2004: J. Sterling Morton Award
• 2004: Petra Kelly Prize
• 2004: Sophie Prize
• 2004: Nobel Peace Prize
• 2006: Légion d'honneur
• 2007: World Citizenship Award
• 2007: Indira Gandhi Prize
• 2007: Cross of the Order of St. Benedict ^[73]
• 2008: The Elizabeth Blackwell Award from Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• 2009: NAACP Image Award - Chairman's Award (with Al Gore)^[74][75]
• 2009: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan^[76][77]
• 2011: The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal awarded by Vanderbilt University^[78]

See also[link]

• Black Nobel Prize laureates
• Furoshiki
• List of female Nobel laureates
• Marion Institute
• Mottainai
• Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD-IV), 2008.
• Women's Environment & Development Organization

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Max Andrews (Ed.): Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. London, Royal Society of Arts,^{[dead link]} 2006 ISBN 978-0-901469-57-1 (Interview with Wangari Maathai)
• Wangari Maathai, Unbowed: A Memoir, Knopf, 2006. ISBN 0-307-26348-7
• Wangari Maathai, The Greenbelt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience, Lantern Books, 2003. ISBN 1-59056-040-X
• Wangari Maathai, The Canopy of Hope: My Life Campaigning for Africa, Women, and the Environment, Lantern Books, 2002. ISBN 1-59056-002-7
• Wangari Maathai, Bottom is Heavy Too: Edinburgh Medal Lecture, Edinburgh UP, 1994. ISBN 0-7486-0518-5
• Picture book (fr.), Franck Prévot (text) & Aurélia Fronty (illustrations), Wangari Maathai, la femme qui plante des millions d'arbres, Rue du monde, 2011 (ISBN 978-2-3550-4158-7)

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Wangari Maathai

• Works by or about Wangari Maathai in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai documentary film
• Climate Change TV Video interview with Dr Wangari Muta Maathai. Filmed during the Conference of the Parties meeting in Poznan, Poland, December 2008
• Official Site: The Green Belt Movement and Wangari Maathai
• Maathai Nobel Prize lecture
• Wangari Maathai and the Billion Tree Campaign
• Feature on Wangari Maathai by the International Museum of Women
• Wangari Maathai presents a talk as a part of the Architecture and Climate Change lecture series held by the Royal Institute of British Architects
• The Lantern Books Blog: Lantern and Wangari Maathai (Video)
• Seeds of change planting a path to peace
• Audio: Wangari Maathai in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme The Forum
• Nobel Women's Initiative
• A Conversation with Wangari Mathai about the Green Belt Movement