Rejoinder to last week\'s IREN Kenya Newsletter (December Issue 3)

Dear IREN,

I think congratulations are in order for Prof. Maathai. Congratulations also for writing a balanced piece. I think you have kept to the motto of your organization: A free mind is capital. It may be the only capital worth striving for. But we must take stock of what our activists have achieved. In most cases, and not just in Kenya alone, we reward activism and outreach without actually evaluating the impact of such works. Organizations reward outputs in the form of documents and media reports. Prof Maathai has done great work for the environment in Kenya. She has planted a trees and suffered great pain for doing so. As we celebrate and shine in the reflected glory of her award, are we going to take heed and save our forests or will it just be business as usual. As you say, the ‘shamba’ system is a good idea, but do we not realize that the population of yesterday is not the same as today. If we open up the ‘shamba’ system now, how many people we dash into the forest? Even those who do not desperately need to cultivate in the forests for survival will go there, including you, Mr. Director. In my opinion, I suggest that one of the ways of reviving our forests is to ban ALL activities in the forests for at least for 20 years. This should include even harvesting for dead trees for sustenance. In the interim, the government should subsidize alternative sources of fuel like paraffin and encourage the use of plastic furniture and steel for the construction industry.

As usual there will be those who defy the ban but I guess mechanisms can be put in place to deal with this. Something should also be done to curb the run way population growth. I think as Kenyans we have not of late been loud enough on this issue. Thanks for this informative newsletter and discussion forum. I am avid reader and will be contributing regularly. Cheers. Keep up the fine fight.

Harrison Maganga – Kenya 

Dear Sir,

Professor Wangari Maathai\'s winning of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize reminds me with nostalgia of the early 1980\'s when I was in lower primary school.  The national radio station, then known as Voice of Kenya, or VOK used to play music encouraging everyone to plant trees, especially to arrest soil erosion and ‘bring’ rain.  The heart of the campaign then used to be that if you cut one tree, plant two and so on.  The then President Mr Moi, was heartily involved in the campaigns in leading all Kenyans in recognizing the importance of protecting the environment from degradation.  In my own school, excursions were held almost every week during which we would visit the local agricultural demonstration centers and be shown how to plant trees, do intercropping and generally prevention of environment degradation.  At the end of such tours, we would leave with heavy loads of tree seedlings to plant back at our school.

At that very young age, we planted trees in our primary school that we had founded in 1983 and I am always proud when I visit the school today: I am proud to announce that eight of the trees I planted with my own hands together with countless others planted by very young pupils are big enough, today, to provide shelter during school functions.  The same trees act as wind breakers protecting the classrooms that we painstakingly put up with our own hands.  And yet, there is more to the trees, but that is a story for another day.

Everything was going on very well until in the late 1980\'s, when the tree planting campaigns somehow stopped.  In my humble opinion, the crusaders got satisfied with the beauty they had created, together with the attendant benefits.  They forgot the great efforts they had put in to produce this beauty. Instead corruption set in and with greed up to their necks, they allocated public (human) forests to individuals, tree planting was replaced by tree cutting and that is how we ended up with very little forest cover in Kenya that it is today.  That is how our streams and rivers started drying up, our cattle and other animals now have no grazing land, there is no clean drinking water, and our own food production is far from sufficient.  Poverty has leaped to a new level.

What Professor Wangari is fighting for is a restoration of nature, (call it the beauty), through tree planting - and with it, the attendant benefits will follow.  There will be more rainfall with increased forest cover; more food production and the people of Kenya will be able to feed themselves instead of depending on the food donations. 

As IREN\'s Director would love to put it \"professional\" environmentalists\' purpose is not only to \"colour the earth green\", but their campaign goes beyond the beauty created by the green trees.  This is exemplified in Professor Wangari\'s speech, in which she says \"Together, we have planted over 30 million trees that provide fuel, food, shelter, and income to support their children’s education and household needs. The activity also creates employment and improves soils and watersheds. Through their involvement, women gain some degree of power over their lives, especially their social and economic position and relevance in the family\".  This is more than just the green landscape.  Women have been empowered economically and should I say, their human need has been addressed/ or is being taken care of.  

The IREN Director urged environmentalists to explore the causes of tree depletion as opposed to \"forcing people to plant trees\".  He is also advocating for a problem solving approach to environmental degradation.

According to Professor Wangari, the approach taken by the Green Belt Movement was a citizen education system in which people identified their problems, the causes and possible solutions.  Everyone is aware of the causes of environmental degradation.  Be it poor governance, poor environmental policies, corruption among our leaders, lack of control and environment protection systems, and allow me to add, extreme poverty.  The Green Belt Movement has used tree planting to address some of these issues.  The success of their effort at least is left for everyone to judge. 

By allowing the peasants to farm forested land, we are undermining the natural ecosystem that exists in the forests. It is not only the tree and the earth that contribute to the ecosystem. Don’t forget the natural shrubs - climbers, crawlers and so on.  Then there are the insects, the birds, other small creeping animals and the tourist attracting wildlife.  When the peasant is allowed to till the land, all else is eradicated or displaced except the tree.  That is when you end up with the other thorny issue of human-wildlife conflict: the displaced animals and birds will come back to destroy the crop being cultivated! Or where will they go, don’t we need them too? 

When a pauper is allowed in a house of feasting, he soon forgets the kindness of the host and wants to devour everything.  It therefore goes without saying that we shall be putting to risk the little forests left when we allow the ‘shamba’ system.  Indeed, we need not look far for us to realize this.  The peasants have become greedy by continuously cutting the very young trees and replanting together with their crops to give the impression that there are trees growing. The effect of this situation is that the trees are never allowed to mature into forests and we end up losing the desired effect.

When we allow the law of demand and supply to dictate to either private ownership of forests or their utilisation without legislation, what are we going to get?  The answer is in the sad situation that we have found ourselves in - environmental degradation, and this is what prompted the likes of Professor Wangari to champion for the protection of the forests. At least, she started and has continued with the planting of a tree - which she calls the symbol of peace, or harmony in our ecosystem.  I am convinced that there is need to support this cause. At least it is a practicable and achievable goal.  My challenge to the Director is, can he match his ideas with one that will give people a tangible solution to the poverty that is rampant all over?

 Opwora Aso, Nairobi, Kenya