Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Kenya's Green Belt Movement
Figure 8-A
Wangari Maathai, the first Kenyan
woman to earn a Ph.D. (in anatomy) and to
head an academic department (veterinary med-
icine) at the University of Nairobi, organized the
internationally acclaimed Green Belt Movement
in 1977. For her work in protecting the environ-
ment, she has received many honors, including
the Goldman Prize, the Right Livelihood Award,
the UN Africa Prize for Leadership, and the
2004 Nobel Peace Prize. After years of being
harassed, beaten, and jailed for opposing gov-
ernment policies, she was elected to Kenya's
parliament as a member of the Green Party in
2002. In 2003, she was appointed Assistant
Minister for Environment and Natural Resources.
Wangari Maathai
(Figure 8-A)
founded the Green
Belt Movement in
Kenya in 1977.
The goals of this
highly regarded women's self-help
group are to establish tree nurs-
eries, raise seedlings, and plant
and protect a tree for each of
Kenya's 34 million people. By 2004,
the 50,000 members of this grass-
roots group had established 6,000
village nurseries and planted and
protected more than 30 million
trees.
The success of this project has
sparked the creation of similar
programs in more than 30 other
African countries. According to this
inspiring leader:
INDIVIDUALS
MATTER
I don't really know why I care so
much. I just have something inside
me that tells me that there is a
problem and I have got to do some-
thing about it. And I'm sure it's the
same voice that is speaking to
everyone on this planet, at least
everybody who seems to be con-
cerned about the fate of the world,
the fate of this planet.
forests learn how to practice small-scale sustainable
agriculture and forestry. Another method is to sustain-
ably harvest some of the renewable resources such as
fruits and nuts in rain forests.
We can also use
debt-for-nature swaps
to make it fi-
nancially attractive for countries to protect their tropi-
cal forests. In such a swap, participating countries act
as custodians of protected forest reserves in return for
foreign aid or debt relief. Another important tool is us-
ing an international system for evaluating and certify-
ing tropical timber produced by sustainable methods.
Loggers can also use gentler methods for harvest-
ing trees. For example, cutting canopy vines (lianas) be-
fore felling a tree can reduce damage to neighboring
trees by 20-40%, and using the least obstructed paths to
remove the logs can halve the damage to other trees. In
addition, governments and individuals can mount ef-
forts to reforest and rehabilitate degraded tropical
forests and watersheds (see Individuals Matter, above).
Another suggestion is to clamp down on illegal logging.
Unfortunately, according to a 1999 study by the
World Bank and the Worldwide Fund for Nature, only
1% of the parks in developing countries receive protec-
tion. Local people invade most of them in search of
wood, cropland, game animals, and other natural
products for their daily survival. Loggers, miners, and
wildlife poachers (who kill animals to obtain and sell
items such as rhino horns, elephant tusks, and furs)
also operate in many of these parks. Park services in
developing countries typically have too little money
and too few personnel to fight these invasions, either
by force or by education.
Another problem is that most national parks are
too small to sustain many large-animal species. Also,
many parks suffer from invasions by nonnative
species that can reduce the populations of native
species and cause ecological disruption.
Case Study: Stresses on U.S. National Parks
National parks in the United States face
many threats.
The U.S. national park system, established in 1912, in-
cludes 58 national parks (sometimes called the coun-
try's
crown jewels;
Figure 5-21, p. 94), most of them
in the West (Figure 8-6). State, county, and city parks
supplement these national parks. Most state parks are
located near urban areas and receive about twice as
many visitors per year as the national parks.
Popularity is one of the biggest problems of na-
tional and state parks in the United States. During the
8-6
NATIONAL PARKS
Global Outlook: Threats to National Parks
Countries have established more than 1,100 national
parks, but most are threatened by human activities.
Today, more than 1,100 national parks larger than 10
square kilometers (4 square miles) each are located in
more than 120 countries.
