Green Belt Movement
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) is an indigenous grassroots organization in Kenya that empowers women through the planting of trees.
[2][3] GBM's successes in forest conservation, education, and women's economic empowerment have gained the organisation worldwide acclaim.
[1] According to their 2003 annual report, the mission of GBM is "to mobilize community consciousness for self-determination, justice, equity, reduction of poverty, and environmental conservation, using trees as the entry point.
"[5] GBM is no longer directly linked to the NCWK and coordinates a national network of women's groups that plant trees and do environmental conservation and community development work.
Their work combats deforestation, restores sources of cooking fuel, generates income, and stops soil erosion.
[6] Since Wangari Maathai started the movement in 1977, more than 51 million trees have been planted, and more than 30,000 women have been trained in forestry, food processing, bee-keeping, and other trades that help them earn income while preserving their lands and resources.
A 2005 paper by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) stated that in Kenya, state expropriation of public lands for private use presents threats to the livelihoods and food security of peasants and the working poor, and that GBM is "deeply immersed" in the resulting struggles for control of public lands.
The Green Belt Movement specifically played an essential role in changing the ways women were treated, excluded from, and used in Kenya.
Maathai began with introducing tree planting programs and regimes into local communities/ targeting communities with little access to basic natural resources such as water or rice.
Maathai even was able to further the Green Belt's movement through expanding its public outreach (media networks/supporters), gain more funding towards tree planting projects/ climate change initiatives, and overall more support to ensure the success of the organization.
After joining the National Council of Women of Kenya, Maathai went on to educate communities and facilitate permanent outreach programs.
After the second tree planting the GBM was able to continue to grow as an organization and they also were able to conduct a significant about of research and studies on Kenya and its environmental problems.
After its second tree planting, and the establishment of several other projects and initiatives led to the GBM participating and facilitating a wide range of political activism.
Specifically during the years of 1989–1994, the Green Belt Movement maintained its non-confrontational goals, while Wangari Maathai openly challenged the political arena.
But nowadays, the Green Belt Movement highlights the focus on direct social and economic transformation of communities to ensure they are not identified as having a political agenda.
Moreover, the movement has made immense strides in helping local rural communities, restoring and improving natural resources and ecosystems, and educating/ empowering women throughout Kenya.
Instead they began cooking enriched white rice and other imported products that, although high in carbohydrates, lacked vitamins and minerals.
From seeing the horrendous conditions women throughout Kenya were facing, Maathai connected the dots between environmental degradation causing and forcing large communities to suffer.
Through the GBM taking a very hands on and invasive approach to improving the rural communities within Kenya, many women were able to get the natural resources they needed/need to survive and continue to grow their families.
It also allowed women to gain access to a variety of educational resources and join the GBM's efforts, activism, and overall contributions to rural communities.
Maathai is responsible for initiating and growing the GBM, and overall spreading feministic views, knowledge, and educational materials throughout Kenya.
She spread her feministic views and knowledge due to the fact she witnessed and endured a variety of discrimination, racism, and gender inequality throughout her life.
Luckily, the Green Belt Movement overall is an organization that seeks to mitigate oppressive practices by ending land grabbing, deforestation, and corruption.
The Green Belt Movement is involved in four main areas of activity that foster the improvement of the natural resources and ecosystems surrounding communities throughout the world.
Which involves the GBM getting communities to contribute to conserving the biodiversity surrounding them, to restoring local/public ecosystems, and to reducing the impact of climate change.
The mainstream advocacy activities of the GBM includes advocating "for greater political accountability and the expansion of democratic space in Kenya.
GBM's approach empowers communities to take action against climate change, the impacts of which are already being witnessed across Africa, through food security and water harvesting activities (adaptation) and planting the appropriate trees in appropriate places (mitigation).
The CEE allows community members from all over Kenya to come together and learn about human activities and how they affect the environment and cause environmental degradation.
