The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience

by Maathai, Wangari Muta

• ISBN13: 9781590560402
• ISBN10: 159056040X
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Lantern Books

Summary

Africa's future is the subject of fierce debate, with the media full of warnings about environmental and economic collapse. Development workers continue to create supposed solutions to the problems they see, with little effect and much controversy. While these outsiders haggle over projections and prophecies, Africans are working on a variety of small, grassroots projects that may change the course of their future.

The Green Belt Movement is an internationally acclaimed tree-planting movement founded by Kenyans and run by and for Kenyans. The organization, which has planted millions of trees throughout East Africa in order to provide sources of fuel, food and a way to stop soil erosion and environmental degradation, is one example of an indigenous movement working to influence Africa's future. Many of its workers are women.

In The Green Belt Movement, founder Wangari Maathai tells its story: why it started, how it operates, and where it is going. She includes the philosophy behind it, its challenges and objectives, and the specific steps involved in startin

Author Biography

Wangari Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the first woman to earn a doctorate in East Africa. A recipient of numerous awards for her work on environmental and social issues, she lives in Nairobi, Kenya

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Foreword	ix
Introduction	1	(5)
The History of the Green Belt Movement	6	(26)
The Overall Goal, Values and Projects	32	(21)
The Organization's Structure	53	(4)
Funding	57	(4)
Achievements	61	(12)
Constraints	73	(5)
Lessons Learned	78	(8)
Why Bother?	86	(4)
How to Establish and Run a Green Belt Tree-Planting Campaign: The Ten-Step Procedure	90	(8)
The Replication of the Green Belt Movement	98	(8)
The Way Forward	106