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Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition (BUFC) Announces
"Planting Peace: An Evening with Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai”
Boston, MA—August 24, 2006—Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition (BUFC) is delighted to announce “Planting Peace: An Evening with Dr. Wangari Maathai,” a benefit to be held on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall.
Dr. Maathai is the first environmentalist and first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor she received in 2004 for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”
“We are honored to be able to welcome Dr. Wangari Maathai to Boston,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino who will give the official welcome to Dr. Maathai at the event. “Her work promoting democracy, human rights and environmental conservation has rightfully earned her worldwide recognition and we are thrilled that she is bringing her inspirational message to Faneuil Hall, a site where so many other important messages have been delivered.”
“Dr. Maathai will share her message of empowerment and hope for the future through the simple steps of planting and protecting trees in our communities,” said Sherri Brokopp, BUFC Chair. “A healthy environment, including trees, provides benefits beyond just the physical ones. Healthier neighborhoods mean healthier people, and healthier people create better communities. Dr. Maathai has demonstrated the vital connections between people and trees throughout Africa. We know she’ll inspire Boston to continue its leadership in protecting our urban forest.
“As Dr. Maathai and her GreenBelt Movement International say, ‘The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple step of digging a hole and planting a tree, we plant hope for ourselves and for future generations.’ This is the vision of Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition and we invite the community to join us in this effort to plant hope for Boston’s future generations,” Brokopp added. “We are thrilled that the evening will include a special opportunity to attend a private VIP reception with Dr. Maathai.”
Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai is internationally recognized for her persistent struggle for democracy, women’s empowerment, human rights and environmental conservation. She has addressed the UN on several occasions and she spoke on behalf of women at special sessions of the General Assembly for the five-year review of the Earth Summit. She served on the commission for Global Governance and Commission on the Future.
Dr. Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya (Africa) in 1940. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, after she had obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (1964) and a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh (1966). She pursued her doctoral studies in Germany and at the University of Nairobi, obtaining a Ph.D. (1971) from the University of Nairobi where she later became the first woman to chair the University’s Department of Veterinary Anatomy and serve as an associate professor.
It was in 1976 while serving on the National Council of Women that she introduced the idea of communal tree planting. She continued to develop it into a broad-based, grassroots organization whose main focus is the planting of trees with women’s groups in order to conserve the environment and improve quality of life. Through the Green Belt Movement she has assisted women in planting more than 20 million trees on their farms and on school and church compounds. In 1986, the Movement established a Pan African Green Belt Network which has led to the establishment of similar tree planting initiatives in Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe.
In December 2002, Dr. Maathai was elected to the Kenyan parliament with an overwhelming 98% of the vote. She was subsequently appointed by Kenya’s president as Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife.
The evening with Dr. Maathai is being hosted by Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition, an organization of non-profit city, state, community, and federal organizations working to improve Boston’s urban forest ecosystem and thereby Boston’s public health and quality of life – “Healthy Trees-Healthy People.” Formed in March, 2005, Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition includes the USDA Forest Service; Boston Parks and Recreation Department; Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation; Mass GIS; Mapping Sustainability; DotWell; UMass Extension; Franklin Park Coalition; Boston Department of Neighborhood Development; Urban Ecology Institute; Boston Natural Areas Network; and Urban Natural Resources Institute.
BUFC planted nearly 100 trees in Boston as part of the 2006 Massachusetts and National Arbor Day Celebrations in April. Teams of community volunteers planted and mulched trees in Dorchester, at the Holland Elementary School complex; in Mission Hill, at the Mission Main housing development; and along Tremont Street, between the Roxbury Crossing and Brigham Circle T stops.
Among BUFC’s other ongoing projects is an inventory of all public street trees in Boston. Inventories of Jamaica Plan, East Boston, Roslindale and the South End have been completed. Volunteer teams are working to complete the tree inventory in the remainder of Boston’s 17 neighborhoods this summer.
Boston College, Timberland, and the law firm of Wilmer Cutler have already signed on as sponsors of Planting Peace. Additional sponsorship opportunities are still available. Proceeds from the evening will help fund BUFC’s ongoing projects, including the Boston Tree Inventory.
For more information on sponsorship of “Planting Peace; an Evening with Dr. Wangari Maathai” or on Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition and its projects, please call Sherri Brokopp at (617) 552-0672, email her at brokopp@bc.edu or visit BUFC’s website at www.bostonforest.org.
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[PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST]
Biography of Dr. Maathai excerpted from Les Prix Nobel.
The Nobel Prizes 2004, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel
Foundation], Stockholm, 2005