Replanting Kenya

The late Professor Wangari Maathai was the first African woman and the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Living On Earth’s 2005 documentary explores how Maathai harnessed the power of “millions of hands,” as she put it, to plant millions of trees, reforesting large stretches of degraded land in her native Kenya. Deforestation started under British colonialism, first to build the railway and dry tea; as it continued topsoil eroded and farming became difficult. Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt movement to help restore soil quality and improve nutrition. The movement grew exponentially, changing government and giving hundreds of thousands of Kenyan women the idea that their voices should be raised, and would be heard.