What is the green belt movement?

The protection of African women and care for the environment come together in the Green Belt Movement, founded in 1977 by Wangari Maathai, a renowned environmentalist who was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. .

Today, the Movement has a network of more than 4,000 community groups that plant trees, thus protecting the environment while training women to generate income through forestry and beekeeping.

More than 50 million trees have already been planted in Kenya as a result of this movement initiated by Muta Maathai and replicated in different African countries.

Known as “Woman Tree”, this woman has dedicated her life to defending the environment and seeking to improve the quality of life for women, inspiring many in the fight for human rights.

As a member of the National Council of Women of Kenya, Maathai was discovering that many of the country’s problems were in the degradation of the environment. So, she presented the need to plant more trees and received support.

From that moment on, she encouraged women to create native tree nurseries in the area, then go to the forest and collect seeds, in exchange for monetary compensation. The ultimate goal was to plant these trees in the forest and provide them with a sustainable work tool.

The creation of the Great Green Wall, a belt of trees 7,000 kilometers long and 15 wide, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea, was announced at the summit of the Community of Saharan and Sahel States, a year after that Maathai received the Nobel Prize. This true “Green Belt” would be able to stop the advance of the desert that currently absorbs 1.5 million hectares per year.

The story of a hummingbird, an inspirational message about your place in the world

In this excerpt from the film “Dirt!”, Wangari Maathai tells a story that inspires and reflects her thinking, motivating us to think about what we can do to change the course of our planet.