What was your reaction when you learned you had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
At first, I was overwhelmed. The Peace Prize is an honor like no other. I was surprised because I had no idea that anyone was listening. I quickly realized that although I had been given this great honor, the honor was not just for me. It was also for the thousands of women who planted 30 million trees throughout Kenya as part of the Green Belt Movement. It was also for those who worked to bring back democracy to Kenya through peaceful means, which we did in 2002. I believe the Nobel committee was sending a message that protecting and restoring the environment contributes to peace; it is peace work. That was gratifying. I always felt that our work was not simply about planting trees. It was about inspiring people to take charge of their environment, the system that governed them, their lives and their future. With the Prize I realized that the world was listening. Just about an hour after receiving the news, I celebrated by planting a tree in Nyeri, my home region, in the face of Mount Kenya. Throughout my life, the mountain has been an inspiration, as it was to generations before me. I called on all those who care for the environment around the world to plant a tree, too. I hope millions are planted.

Why do you think you received the Prize?
In recognizing our work the Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized a long, long struggle. I believe the Committee was making a shift to show that the relationships between democracy, sustainable management of the environment and peace are critical to our understanding of human security. The prize recognised that women in many countries struggle, but their struggle often goes unnoticed. I see the prize as also acknowledging advocates for democracy and peace everywhere. All of these constituencies should embrace this recognition and use it to advance our common vision and meet the expectations the Committee has put upon us.

What does the Prize mean to Kenya and to Africa?
I have received so many messages from Kenyans—women, men and even children—saying how happy they are and how proud they feel as Kenyans and as Africans. I meet people around Nairobi and they hug me with tears in their eyes. This prize has given Kenyans a lot of energy. It really is the icing on the cake after the elections of 2002. While Kenya and Africa have many challenges, this prize is a signal that there is hope. For Kenyans, being recognized like this means we have been given a special challenge. I hope the Prize will inspire us as a government and as a people to set a good example for Africa and the rest of the world, to show them that no matter what problems we face we can still protect the environment and think of future generations. The message for Africans is that the solutions to our problems lie within us. The work we have been doing with the Green Belt Movement is a local response to a local problem.

How are peace and democratic governance related to the environment?
I have always seen the linkages between environment and democracy. When we speak of the environment, we generally mean managing our resources properly so we can use them to improve our quality of life. We want to be able to access these resources in a healthy state. If we believe that a clean and healthy environment is a right, we cannot gain this right unless we have a democratic government that respects and acknowledges it, along with other rights. If citizens do not acknowledge these rights or their responsibilities, we will not have a healthy environment. Without that, livelihoods cannot be supported, so you will not have a democratic system. Instead, people will compete over resources. We cannot alleviate poverty unless we find a way to use our natural resources sustainably. When people are poor they will not think about the long-term consequences of their actions on a forest, a stream, a field or a species. Once that resource is degraded or lost, the poor will get that much poorer. I believe the Green Belt Movement provides one of the solutions.

In addition, many conflicts, present and past, are waged over resources, whether land, forests, minerals, oil, water or seeds. As the Earth's resources continue to be depleted through unsustainable use, poor management and exploitation, conflicts will flare more often, and will be more difficult to contain. Protecting global and local environments, therefore, is essential for achieving lasting peace. It is critical that people around the world take action to reverse environmental degradation and its negative impacts on our lives and those of other species. To have a strong statement by the Nobel Committee that these three areas make one integral whole is very important.

What are the origins of the Green Belt Movement? What impacts has it had?
I have always loved nature, but I became aware of the connection between environment and people’s lives in the mid-1970s. Rural women I met through the National Council of Women of Kenya, in which I was an officer, related their needs to me. They said they did not have enough wood for energy or good sources of clean drinking water or enough to eat, especially nutritious foods. I saw that the common thread in all of this was that the environment around them was in decline. Trees were a good solution. Trees could meet women’s immediate needs and also help restore degraded ecosystems. I began to work with the women to grow tree seedlings and plant them on private land. Women were compensated for their seedlings so they got a small income.

Has this approach been shared with other countries?
Yes, in 1986 the United Nations Environment Programme encouraged the Green Belt Movement to share our approach and experiences with like-minded organizations in other parts of Africa. We developed the Pan African Green Belt Network, which has provided two-week trainings to representatives of over 30 organizations from 15 African countries. They visit field programs and get hands-on experience in all Green Belt program areas. Organizations in a number of countries have incorporated the Green Belt approach in their work. These include Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Mozambique and Zambia. It has been very rewarding to see this work grow. We will continue to share our experiences even more broadly, in Africa and beyond.

How did the Green Belt Movement get involved in Kenya’s pro-democracy movement?
Over the years, we realized that communities also needed to be aware of the connections between the problems they were experiencing (the symptoms) and environmental degradation and poor governance—as well as the power they had to change the situation. This was through our civic and environmental education program. Through this training, people (both women and men) began to see that if you have a dictatorial, irresponsible government, that government can privatise your forests, privatise your open green spaces, destroy your environment, misappropriate tax money, and ignore its responsibilities to the people. Eventually, it was through these seminars that a pro-democracy movement was created within the Green Belt Movement that joined with the larger pro-democracy movement in Kenya.

What is the significance of the tree to the Green Belt Movement?
Trees help heal the land and help break the cycle of poverty and hunger. Trees also provide a source of fuel, material for building and fencing, fruits, fodder, shade and aesthetic beauty. This is particularly important for women, who are expected to overcome resource deficits—for example, by walking further to find wood for cooking and heating and clean water—and growing or gathering new sources of food as old ones disappear. Trees, and intact forests, also keep soil healthy, stem erosion, protect rivers and streams (critical sources of clean water), and promote regular rainfall so droughts are avoided. The tree is also a wonderful symbol for peace. It is living and it gives hope. Trees are also actual places of peace. Many African communities—including my own, the Kikuyu—have special trees under which individual and community conflicts are resolved. In this, and in so many ways, the planting of trees lessens the potential for conflict and fosters peace. The Green Belt Movement has used trees as symbols of peace in Kenya. In the early 1990’s in an effort to diffuse clashes between ethnic clashes, the Green Belt Movement planted trees with both sides. We also planted trees in Nairobi’s Uhuru Park to show our belief in democracy, even when we were living under a very oppressive government that seemed unlikely to change. When you look beyond the trees there is wonderful symbolism.

You are now Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources and a member of Kenya’s Parliament. But when you were working with the Green Belt Movement you were one of the leading members of the opposition to the previous Government of Daniel arap Moi. What has it been like moving from civil society to being inside the government?
Being in the Government is extremely exciting and challenging because now you have an opportunity to really make the changes you have always wanted to see. We are trying to improve on what was there before. One of the major challenges is that we inherited a very mismanaged system, riddled with corruption. Expectations from Kenyans for this government are very high. When I go into Parliament, I still reflect on what a big privilege it is to be there and what a great responsibility too. Also, I am one of the very few women to have had this opportunity in a country of 30 million people. In Parliament, there are still very few women—they hold less than 10 percent of the seats. Of course, it is not a coincidence that the President put me in the Ministry of Environment.

How has your work over the years promoted women’s empowerment?
I placed my faith in the rural women of Kenya from the very beginning, and they have been key to the success of the Green Belt Movement. Through this very hands-on method of growing and planting trees, women have seen that they have real choices about whether they are going to sustain and restore the environment or destroy it. In the process of education that takes place when someone joins the Green Belt Movement, women have become aware that planting trees or fighting to save forests from being chopped down is part of a larger mission to create a society that respects democracy, decency, adherence to the rule of law, human rights, and the rights of women. Women also take on leadership roles, running nurseries, working with foresters, planning and implementing community-based projects for water harvesting and food security. All of these experiences contribute to their developing more confidence in themselves and more power over the direction of their lives.

Do you see yourself as a role model for women?
Sometimes I have had difficult times. Having them and overcoming them is very important for women. They see that you don’t have to be down and under. You can get back up. Women relate to those ups and downs. But men relate to them, too. In the beginning men in Kenya were very unsympathetic, because they thought what I was doing was not appropriate. When I was put in my place, I think they thought, “good!” But then when I got up again, they could not help but admire the process. Then they started to respect me. I think that is why the Kenyan public is now very receptive to both women and men. A lot of women were also very encouraged by the fact that I was elected to Parliament in 2002, in Kenya’s first free and fair elections in nearly a quarter-century. My being elected is very important to many women. So many messages I got said, “You should have been there a decade ago!”

It’s been a tough struggle for you working with the Green Belt Movement. You have been beaten, jailed, vilified publicly and had death threats. What was most difficult?
The most difficult aspect was the fact that the former Government was completely against the Green Belt Movement and our work of mobilizing women into groups that could produce seedlings and plant them. The Government was also against the idea of educating and informing women. It didn’t want citizens to know that sometimes the enemy of the forests and the environment was the Government itself, which was supposed to be protecting the environment. If citizens saw the linkages, they would put pressure on the government to improve governance, to create democratic space, to help them protect their environment, and to be responsible managers on citizens’ behalf. When we were beaten up, it was because we were telling the Government not to interfere with the forests. We were confronted by armed police and guards who physically removed us from the forests as we sought to protect these green spaces from commercial exploitation. Sometimes in the process we got hurt, arrested or thrown into jail.

How did you keep going?
People often ask me why I was not afraid. The best way I can explain it is to say that I did not project fear. Quite often when we project the consequences of our actions, then of course we can feel fear. If you project that you might die, that you might lose the privileges of the position you hold, that you might be fired, you begin to focus on the consequences. But if you stay focused on what you want to attain, then you actually go right in there where many people would not dare to go. It’s not that I am brave, or that I do not see the consequences. But by not projecting it, I do not embrace the fear that so often stops us from pursuing our goals. Those of us who understand, who feel strongly, must not tire. We must not give up. We must persist. I always say that the burden is on those who know. Those who don’t know are at peace. It’s those of us who know that get disturbed and are forced to take action.

What is the responsibility of governments in ensuring environmental protection?
In Kenya, the area of forested land has declined to less than 2 percent, and the UN Environment Programme recommends a minimum of 10 percent for people. For people to thrive, the environment that sustains them must thrive. Governments need to be at the forefront of environmental protection. Without specific laws that protect the environment it is difficult to see how any delicate ecosystem can survive over the short-term, let alone the long-term. Unless there is political will and public acceptance of environmental protection around the world—because environmental management and protection is a global concern and responsibility—then the enormous benefits the environment bestows on us may be lost, and future generations will pay the price.

What are some of the main environmental challenges in Kenya?
In Kenya, it is deforestation and desertification. Few forests are left. The population is increasing and there is not enough land for everyone to grow crops. For the last 80 years or so we have been planting exotic species for the timber industry, often in indigenous forests. As the trees are planted, people are invited to go into the forests and grow crops along with the exotic trees. This is known as the shamba system. It is something I have been fighting to eliminate from indigenous forests. I have been trying to convince others in government and in the community that we need to stop cutting or cultivating crops in our indigenous forests. When the forests are cleared, rivers and streams dry up, biodiversity is lost, and rainfall becomes erratic. This threatens farmers’ livelihoods and has negative impacts on other species as habitats are lost.

What is the relationship between culture and environment?
Too often, when we talk about conservation, we don’t think about culture. But during our work with the Green Belt Movement, we realized that some of the communities had lost aspects of their culture that facilitated conservation of the environment. Culture defines who we are and how we see ourselves. A new attitude toward nature provides space for a new attitude toward culture and the role it plays in sustainable development. Mount Kenya, African’s second highest peak, is a World Heritage Site. It is topped by glaciers and is the source of many of Kenya’s rivers. Now, partly because of climate change and partly because of logging and encroachment due to crop cultivation, the glaciers are melting. Many of the rivers flowing from the mountain have dried up or their levels have declined. Biological diversity is threatened as the forests fall. Mount Kenya used to be sacred to the Kikuyu people. If the mountain was still given the reverence the culture accorded it, people would not have allowed illegal logging and clear-cutting in the forests. Cultural revival might be the only thing that stands between the conservation or destruction of the environment.

What can youth do to protect the environment?
I would like to call on young people, in particular, to take inspiration from the Nobel Peace Prize. I want them to know that despite the challenges and constraints they face, there is hope. I want to encourage them to serve the common good. My experiences have taught me that service to others has its own special rewards. I also have a lot of hope in youth. Their minds do not have to be held back by old thinking about the environment. And you don’t have to be rich or give up everything to become active. Even simply using both sides of a piece of paper before recycling is conserving the environment. The situation, however, is serious because the youth of today will experience the consequences of their elders’ mismanagement of the environment. Unless we change course, the coming generations will inherit an impoverished environment that will mean a hungrier, less fertile, and more unstable world. More conflicts will erupt. Young people need to become involved in promoting environmental sustainability. Through the Green Belt Movement we have helped young people get involved in environmental activities. We have tried to instill in them the idea that protecting the environment is not just a pleasure but also a duty.

HIV/AIDS is a huge challenge, especially for Africa. What are your thoughts on facing it?
No one can underestimate the challenge that the tragedy of HIV/AIDS puts before all countries. Nowhere has the devastation been greater than in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods to alleviate the suffering and, hopefully, find a cure require our full commitment. For too long, discussing HIV/AIDS in our communities has been taboo. This must end. We must encourage free and full public debate on the threat. We must be frank about how the HIV virus spreads through unprotected sex or intravenous drug use, and how poverty and inequality between women and men are the major driving forces of the pandemic in Africa. We must also increase access to information, care and treatment. In this decisive and difficult struggle in Africa we need the critical encouragement, support and cooperation from the rest of world so that we win the battle.

What is your vision for the future?
The Nobel Peace Prize will make me work harder for the years that are left and inspire others so they can walk along the same path I have for the environment and for the good of the people and the world in which we live. I want to focus on expanding the impact of my work. I hope I will be able to do more. I want to empower a larger constituency to embrace environmental conservation as a means of achieving democracy and peace. I also want to promote cultural preservation, and encourage people to deepen their commitment to democracy and peaceful co-existence. I am establishing the Wangari Maathai Foundation to strengthen and expand my work. I believe I am fulfilling the mandate of the Nobel committee when they recognized that my work was contributing to peace. We still have a lot to do. We know that the little we are doing is making positive change. If we can multiply that several million times, we can change the world—definitely.