Cobertura Especial 
Beijing+10

Wangari Maatthai at UN:
Outcome of Grassroots “Plant a Tree for Peace” Campaign

New York, March 4, 2005. FIRE/Women´s Media Pool

Two renowned women peace activists met for the first time to join hands in an historic message of peace and the environment today at the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) also known as "Beijing + 10".   Wangari Maathai of Kenya, and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, joined Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala, and 1992 Nobel Laureate to address a standing room only crowd at the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York at the United Nations to celebrate the Platform for Action of the IV world Conference on Women in Beijing, 1995.

 

Matthai told the crowd that linking peace and the environment are critical to world peace and sustainable development, that along with democracy they serve as three pillars of peace or like three legs on a traditional African stool.  ¨We cannot have peace without these three pillars,¨which must be firmly grounded in order to have peace and development.  ¨Matthai added, ¨We should invest more in cultures of peace, in preventing war, because once wars start, it is very difficult to stop them, they are very destructive.  So we should invest in peace rather than in war.  and one way to invest in peace is to take care of the environment, to manage our resources in a responsible, sustainable way.  to share these resources equitably.

Menchú noted that the Mayan Quichè people of her homeland in Guatemala have struggled for decades to gain rights as indigenous peoples, which included rights to their land.  She noted that much of the conflict during the civil war in the 1980s and more recently since the peace accords were signed in 1994 has involved land rights for indigenous peoples.  She recalled how 20 years ago at the Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi, Kenya, she had tried to get land rights of indigenous peoples included in the agenda. 

 

As part of today´s activity, Matthai, the Nobel Prize 2004 winner received a report and multimedia presentation of the results of the grassroots campaign “Plant a Tree for Peace,” launched globally on the day Maathai received the award, International Human Rights Day. For the first time in history, and environmentalist received the Nobel Award. It was also the first time an African women was awarded the Nobel prize, and she received it because she has headed a movement that has planted millions of trees.

 

After the event, Matthai made a statement to FIRE to broadcast on the 8th of March for International Women`s Day, calling on women of the world to keep on planting trees for peace, to continue the grassroots campaign.

 

The launching of the earlier “Plant a Tree for Peace” Campaign took place during IUCN´s General Assembly and Forum in Thailand last November, 2004, by the Women´s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and the Gender Program of the World Conservation Union (UICN) who issued the global call for women to plant trees for peace to celebrate with Maathai and her movement. Accompanying the call, Feminist International Radio Endeavour(FIRE), the Costa Rica based first women´s internet radio station in the world, distributed a press release in support of the Campaign.

So many reports came back to FIRE, and such beautiful pictures and testimonies portraying families, school children, corporations, feminist organizations, university programs, community and commercial radio stations, individuals and groups of friends, that FIRE decided to disseminate the results in a multimedia format to be sent back to all participants from Armenia, Israel, Costa Rica, the United States and Kenya, among others.

The first CD ROM was personally given to Wangari today at the United Nations. The CD ROM report features the first trees planted the Campaign in Thailand on the 25th of November at the grounds of IUCN´s Asia office in Bangkok by women from Asia, Latin America, Africa and United States.

It also features Kenyan women who created a Peace Garden, and launched a Sustainable Peace Tree Project in a village in the Meru District of Kenya. That day,  a group  25 women planted 50 trees in a “Peace Garden” or “Peace Trees Corner” at the edge of a forest where they gather firewood for their livelihood, as reported to FIRE by Karambu Ringera, a Kenyan activist who organized the event.

The women, who call themselves “the women of light”-- meaning ¨lighting the way for peace,¨ received a $75 donation to start a sustainable project to plant more trees for peace, and help educate their children.  They currently harvest wood from the forest to sell as firewood around the village, earning $1.25 per load, which takes half a day to gather throughout the forest.  The group has invited Wangari Maathai to one day visit their Peace Garden, “and share with them the vision of peace trees for sustainable peace in our families, communities and nation.”

An Israeli women´s group “Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam”  planted four native trees as part of a Call for Peace in the Middle East. After walking to the tree planting site, which was located above a spiritual center overlooking a beautiful valley with a monastery, the group began the ceremony with a prayer in Hebrew, English and Arabic “to bring healing to the people of our region for whom we plant these trees,” as reported to FIRE by Libby Begstein. 

The four trees they planted included a Palm, a Pistachio, and two fruit trees – Patango and Fejoya, all native to the region.  They told stories about the trees and dedicated one to a young Palestinian boy who was arrested and remains in detention.  “We planted the trees together, for ourselves and our families, for the community of Neve Shalom – Wahat al-Salam and for our region as well!   for others who could not be there…” noted Libby.

On another corner of the planet, in Costa Rica, several groups joined the campaign by planting trees on their grounds, including the University for Peace, La Salle University, the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, a group of women´s organizations, the Tropical Sierra Foundation, and others.

The University for Peace in El Rodeo, Costa Rica, planted 24 trees with 50 international students, along with staff and administrators on December 10th, which in addition to being International Human Rights Day, was also the 24th anniversary of that educational institution.  The ceremony included readings and statements by a variety of participants, and also a poem, written and read by Edith Natukunda of Africa that said “Asante Baba!” (Thank you, Sister) to honor Wangari Maathai.  

Also in Costa Rica at La Salle University, 60 doctoral students in New Paradigms in Education donated an “Cortés Amarillo” tree, which was planted on the university grounds in the center of San José on December 10th. 

Likewise, feminist organizations in Costa Rica donated a “Reina de la Noche” (Queen of the Night) tree which was planted on December 10th on the grounds of the Gender Equity office of  the Costa Rican Technological Institute in the city of Cartago.  In addition, FIRE staff planted a “Malinche” tree in the backyard of its office/studio in rural Ciudad Colón in honor of Wangari Maathai and International Human Rights Day.

The Tropical Sierra Foundation planted trees with the children of the El Rodeo School in Ciudad Colón.  The Foundation also signed a commitment with the Costa Rican milk producing company, Dos Pinos Corporation, in which the company promised to finance the planting of trees and fund an irrigation system for their maintenance along the Siquiares River in San José.

Individual and family initiatives were also reported to FIRE about the planting of trees around Costa Rica in San Pedro, Santa Ana, Ciudad Colón, Puerto Viejo de Limón, and others.

In Puerto Rico on December 13, producer Norma Valle interviewed FIRE for the national radio program “Agenda de Hoy” (Today´s Agenda) on the University Radio at the University of Puerto Rico, and called on people to give trees as Christmas presents, both to honor Wangari Maathai´s work and to contribute with a personal action to counteract deforestation in the island and in the world.  Following the call, the owner of the Puerto Rican agricultural and ecological enterprise, “Plantas de Caparra”, contacted by FIRE and also interviewed by Valle, shared with the audience the kinds of native trees to plant for the Campaign during Christmas.

The Armenian Tree Project in that country joined the Campaign, pledging to plant one million trees in 2006.

In the USA, graduate students in the International & Intercultural Communications program at the University of Denver organized a ceremony that involved planting a tree in a pot, and invited people to come to celebrate the Nobel award by decorating the tree, and committed to planting it on the grounds of the University once spring arrives in that part of the world. 

Deforestation and desertification are serious problems in many countries.  Each minute, 40 hectares (99 acres) of forest are destroyed around the world.

Desertification is the gradual transformation of habitable land into desert caused by destructive use of the land or climate change.  Worldwide, of each 100 hectares (230 acres) of land, 60 hectares (138 acres) or 36 million square kilometers (22.4 million square miles) worldwide are in a process of degradation through loss of forest or desertification. Women are particularly affected by deforestation, because they typically gather forest products for fuel, fencing, food for the family, fodder for livestock and raw materials to produce natural medicines, which help increase family income.

Wangari Maathai is renowned for having led the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, which she launched in 1997 with the 50,000-strong National Council for Women. Since then the Green Belt Movement  has created a network of 6,000 village nurseries and planted 20 million trees in order to combat desertification and erosion (UNEP, Women and the Environment, 2004).

The UN meeting of delegates at the CSW with Wangari Mathaai was sponsored by WEDO, IUCN and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).

For more information go to:
www.womensmediapool.org 
www.fire.or.cr
www.iucn.org