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Nobel Peace Laureate Congratulates and Challenges Boston to Continue "Planting Peace"
Dr. Wangari Maathai Addresses Boston's Urban Forest Coalition Event

Boston, MA—November 7, 2006—An enthusiastic crowd cheered Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Wangari Maathai with multiple standing ovations when she spoke at Faneuil Hall on behalf of Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition’s Planting Peace program.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino welcomed Dr. Maathai, the first environmentalist and first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and encouraged the Boston Public School students in attendance to learn from her inspiring message, noting that “this evening is an extension of your classroom work.”

Menino confessed, “I’m a fanatic for trees.”  He explained that, “Trees do so much for the way we look at our neighborhoods.  Boston is blessed with a wonderful array in our tree canopy with 29% of the city boasting tree coverage.   This is a better rate than New York or Baltimore, but it is not good enough.  We can and must do more to retain what we have and expand for the future,” he added, noting that 1500 new trees have been planted along city streets in the last three years.

Sherri Brokopp, Chair of Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition (BUFC), thanked Dr. Maathai for her work and for coming to Boston to support the Coalition and for her work which earned her the Nobel in 2004 for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.”

“A healthy environment, including trees, provides benefits beyond just the physical ones. Healthier neighborhoods mean healthier people, and healthier people create better communities,” said Brokopp. “Dr. Maathai has demonstrated the vital connections between people and trees throughout Africa. As Dr. Maathai and her Green Belt 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.”

Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Commissioner Stephen Burrington introduced Dr. Maathai to the audience of teachers, community leaders, environmentalists, students, and the general public.  In recognition of her appearance, he announced that DCR will contribute 100 trees to be planted in Boston’s public spaces as part of next April’s Arbor Day celebration.

In wide-ranging remarks, Dr. Maathai helped the crowd see the connection between the simple act of planting and protecting trees and the seemingly-impossible task of waging peace.

Taking the microphone at Faneuil Hall, Dr. Maathai began, “I am honored to be here where we can reflect on the historic decisions made in this great hall, a cradle of liberty, and the ways in which we can all play a small part in the future.”

She told about her childhood, when she gathered firewood from all but the old fig tree near her homestead.  In those days, the healthy stream nearby was teeming with frogs’ eggs, then tadpoles, and she spent hours trying to catch them.  But the old tree was cut down, its deep roots no longer drew water to the surface, and the stream dried up.  Now the children in the area do not know of frogs’ eggs or tadpoles, and the land is parched.  “Because environmental destruction happens slowly,” Dr. Maathai noted, “we don’t notice it.  The generation that destroys is not the one that pays the price.”

Dr. Maathai suggested that the Nobel Committee, in selecting an environmentalist for the Peace Prize, is trying to change our mindset about the causes of peace and security.  She said the Nobel Committee is suggesting that we consider pre-empting conflict by managing resources more equitably.  Africa, she noted, is rich in natural resources, but “we are among the poorest people because we don’t nurture the three pillars of a healthy society.”  Those pillars, which she likened to a traditional African 3-legged stool, are:

·      Sustainable management of limited resources

·      Good governance

·      Peace, deliberately and consciously nurtured.

Africa and many parts of the world are awash in war and conflict.  “When you remove the camouflage of race, religion, and tribe, you see that most conflicts are a fight over resources – water, land, oil.”  For example, the Maasai tribe in Kenya has lost grazing land for its cattle as the Kikuyus have been cutting forests for income.  The shrinking forest-land no longer retains enough rainfall to keep the grazing lands green.  The tribes are in conflict because their subsistence is threatened.  While the conflict may appear tribal, it is actually a fight over water and grazing and farming ground.

Dr. Maathai told of her heartbreak when astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery reported that they saw a dark cloud of dust over Africa, and that the rivers were brown with silt, all the result of deforestation.  She’s been working for 30 years to encourage the planting and protecting of trees, and her Green Belt Movement International has planted more than 30 million trees.  But she reminds herself that “you must be patient, you must be persistent.”

She challenged the audience to take steps to improve the situation, both in their own communities and worldwide.  What can individuals do?  First, plant trees.  Every human being needs ten trees to absorb our own carbon dioxide, she explained.  “If you don’t plant at least ten trees, you’re living in debt!”

She also urged the audience to buy furniture and wood-products only from sustainably-managed forests, to discourage deforestation.  Dr. Maathai also commended rock-star Bono’s campaign to encourage the G-8 industrial nations to cancel the debt incurred by corrupt and irresponsible governments of poor countries.

Dr. Maathai also urged the audience to see “An Inconvenient Truth,” the global warming documentary by former Vice President Al Gore.  Seeing the images of the loss of the snowcap on Mt. Kenya and Mt. Kilimanjaro helps people see the reality of climate change, and the threat it brings to our dwindling resources.

And always, plant and protect trees.  “Whether a tree is in the U.S., Japan, the Congo, or Amazon, every tree is important for our survival.  And every tree must be planted one at a time.  It doesn’t happen overnight,” she warned.

But she does not get discouraged.  She told the story of a tiny hummingbird, fighting a raging forest fire by flitting back and forth to douse the flames with water, one drop at a time.  When the other forest animals ridiculed the hummingbird for this effort, the bird explained “I’m doing the best I can.”  Dr. Maathai, who has inspired people across Africa and throughout the world to plant trees one-at-a-time, urged the Boston audience to be hummingbirds in their own communities, “by doing the best we can.”

The evening with Dr. Maathai was 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 projects was an inventory of all public street trees in Boston.  Results of the inventory are available through BUFC and the Urban Ecology Institute.

WilmerHale, the Boston College Lowell Humanities Series, Timberland, Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ Environmental Ministries, Nord Family Foundation, Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation, and the Saunders Hotel Group sponsored the Planting Peace event.  Proceeds from the evening will help fund BUFC’s ongoing projects, including the Greater Boston Tree Inventory.

For more information on Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition and its projects, please visit BUFC’s website at www.bostonforest.org or call 508-698-6810.

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