Today's seed of hope comes in the form of Nobel Peace prize winner, Wangari Maathai, and her Green Belt Movement, that has planted 51 million trees and counting across Kenya.
I have just finished reading her memoir 'Unbowed' and am inspired by her courage, compassion and wisdom. She struggled through so many huge obstacles, yet nothing could stop her on her mission to make life better for the people of Kenya, and of Africa.
Having grown up in a lush, green valley, where water ran clear and plentiful, and the fertile soil provided all the food they needed, the understanding that healthy environment means healthy people was integral to who she was.
Over her life that same valley, along with much of Kenya, became more and more degraded. The trees were cut down, and the rivers turned muddy brown and dried up. People were hungry, as the fertile soil was washed away and there was no longer enough water for irrigation. One poignant paragraph is about a giant fig tree, that as a child she often visited to drink from the spring that emerged from its roots. She was told by the adults around her that fig trees are very important, because they bring water. She returns as an adult and the fig tree has been cut down, and the cool, bubbling spring is no more. It appears this crucial lesson, and many others lessons like it, were forgotten by every one apart from Maathai.
It is well known in restoration ecology that trees ensure river health, though moderating temperatures, stabilising banks and reducing sediment input. It is also well known that empowering women increases economic development, and economic development can empower women. What Wangari Maathai did with her Green Belt Movement is combine the two. In poverty-stricken, environmentally-degraded areas, Maathai trained and employed local women to collect local tree seeds and plant them. She would then buy the saplings and use them to reforest the degraded areas, eventually training the women themselves to do the reforestation. She encouraged people to invest the money they were earning in things like goats, bee hives and other money-making ventures. 5 years or so after planting the seedlings, the villages had a forest, which provided fire wood, and fresh, clean water began to flow again. Local deforestation, and the environmental and social problems it incurs, solved.
Pan out to the effect of deforestation on the whole of Africa, and you see there are two huge deserts - the Kalahari in the South West and the Sahara in the North - 'racing towards each other.' As trees are removed, the top soil is washed away and the rain that trees create ceases to fall, turning lush forest into barren, hostile desert. Pan out to the whole world, and deforestation is contributing to 20% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. The resulting climate change then feeds back and increases the rate of desertification. All of this takes a huge toll on economies, and as a result the life becomes very difficult for the people living in the affected areas.
What I'm trying to say with all of that overwhelmingly depressing information, is that locally it is that it is possible to stop this from happening. Expand projects like Maathai's around the globe, and the environment will spring back to health, and with it the happiness, health and prosperity of the people who live there.
On a final note, the recognition of the importance of trees in urban areas is also growing. 84% of the global population living in cities, and air pollution is a leading cause of human mortality. Urban trees seem almost too good to be true; they mitigate air pollution, create cooler local environments, sequestrate carbon and are aesthetically pleasing. A study in 2010 in Canada found urban trees removed 16,500 tonnes of air pollution, saved 227.2 million dollars in health care costs, and saved 30 people from dying from air pollution related diseases.
I'll leave you with some inspiring words of wisdom from Wangari Maathai - I hope you have a great day and thank you for reading!