PRESS CONFERENCE BY WANGARI MAATHAI, 2004 NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE

While there had been much talk over the years about forests in general, the fact was that very little was taking place on the ground, Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.

Stressing the need for commitment at the national and global levels to address the urgent situation of deforestation and forest degradation, she said the choice to make a difference rested with people and governments.  Governments needed to be urged, not only at the global but also at the local level, to mobilize their people.  Trees grew in the soil, and unless people’s hands became dirty, nothing would change.  It was one thing to write documents and another to translate them into action.  In the countries where action was most needed, that was not happening.

Today’s press conference followed Ms. Maathai’s address to the fifth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests, which opened yesterday and will conclude on 27 May.  The Forum is meeting to, among other things, review the effectiveness of the international arrangement on forests (IAF).  More than 300 government officials, including 40 ministers, are expected to participate in the Forum, which will culminate in a two-day high-level ministerial segment on 25 and 26 May.

The Chairman of the Forum, Manuel Rodriguez-Becerra of Colombia, who joined Ms. Maathai, said the Forum was the highest policy body on forests at the international level.  In the first two days of its session, he heard many expressions of dissatisfaction at the lack of implementation of the policies decided on at the global level.  There was a long distance between words and actions.  Meaningful implementation of the decisions taken globally had been missing, as evidenced by the fact that deforestation and degradation of the forests was increasing.  He hoped the Forum would result in the political commitment of both developed and developing countries to implement policies.

For the developed world, he said, that would mean the commitment to provide financial resources, capacity-building and technology transfer.  The developing world, especially the tropical countries, also needed to commit to implementing policies at the national level.  Some 70 countries had low-cover forests.  Deforestation and degradation was a major obstacle to development.  The situation of the world’s forests was a crisis, and he hoped a political commitment to address the problem would be forthcoming in the next two weeks.

Ms. Maathai, who also serves as Kenya’s Assistant Minister of Environment and Natural Resources and Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystems, explained that, in her work, she had been trying to make the link between forests as an ecosystem and the services they provided.  Forests received water, retained it and replenished underground reservoirs.  They were also reservoirs of genetic resources, many of which were still undiscovered and should not be destroyed.  People received the water as a blessing from the Creator, but with their hands wide open.  The blessing ran through their fingers, leaving them poverty stricken.  Her message was for people to put their hands together and keep the water on the land.

Making that linkage was something politicians, teachers and religious leaders needed to do, she said.  Without trees, there would be no oxygen.  Most people did not understand the way in which their daily lives related to trees and forests.  Until one looked for a seed, planted it and nourished it, all other action was meaningless.  Action meant rivers that ran clean and crops that yielded food.  That had been her message in Kenya for the last 30 years.  Nothing had changed until women had started planting trees.  When that happened, the entire landscape changed.  “We could spend the rest of our lives talking, but the more we talk, the more we are losing”, she said.

Noting that the word “implementation” was heard at many United Nations conferences, a correspondent asked how the Forum hoped to get governments to put programmes into action.

Responding, Ms. Maathai provided an example of action in her native Kenya.  Members of the Green Belt Movement, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the United States Development Agency were encouraging people to produce tree seedlings native to a particular mountain.  When they were produced, they were given to foresters who physically planted the trees, nurturing them for six months.  For every seedling that survived, the groups received eight cents as an incentive, not payment, to rehabilitate forests.  By mobilizing local communities, it was possible to rehabilitate an entire ecosystem using very few resources.

That experience could be replicated in other mountain areas of the country, she added.  It had been a way of convincing the Kenyan Government that forested mountains should not be used for commercial plantations, as that destroyed local biodiversity and the capacity of national forests to receive rain water, retain it and replenish underground reservoirs.  It was on the slopes of mountains that cash crops were grown.  Interfering with the rain patterns would kill the country’s most important industries.  The mountains supported the rivers that supplied the savannahs, where wildlife lived.  Tourism was one of Kenya’s most important industries.  The destruction of the mountains impacted many other sectors.  Governments needed to be challenged to adopt long-term thinking.

Mr. Rodriquez-Becerra agreed that governments needed to be challenged.  The United Nations was the place to do that.  The forest situation in many countries, especially in the developing countries, was a major obstacle to development.  Rich countries needed to be challenged to provide the means to implement policies.  The problem was great and rehabilitation would require an enormous investment.  Some 90 per cent of natural forests were located in 24 countries.  The rest only had small fringes of natural forests.

Responding to a question on the development of a “Convergence Plan” for Central Africa, Ms. Maathai noted that heads of State of the Central African region had committed themselves to finance 40 per cent of the total cost of the plan through debt cancellation.  Kenya spent 40 per cent of its revenue on debt servicing.  Putting that amount aside would be quite significant.

Responding to a question on the average rate of deforestation, Mr. Rodriguez-Becerra noted that the situation in tropical forests was the most alarming.  It was not only a problem of deforestation, but of degradation of forests.  Forests without wildlife were very unhealthy.  It was not only an issue of having trees, but of having healthy trees.

The companies involved in the timber trade assumed a global responsibility for harvesting timber in a sustainable way, Ms. Maathai added.  Developed countries could not protect their own forests, while at the same time taking advantage of countries that had very little skill in adding value to their timber.  A code of ethics was needed to keep companies from destroying forests in vulnerable countries.

Regarding the future of the Greenbelt Movement, she said she was trying to establish an endowment fund to ensure that the experience of that organization was shared by as many people as possible, both within the region, but also in other countries that had suffered deforestation.  Haiti was a good example.  The difference between the forests in Haiti and the Dominican Republic was dramatic.  In order to succeed in a country like Haiti, the community would need to be mobilized.  People must know that they were not doomed to the situation in which they lived, but that the situation could be reversed.  In many countries, the only reason people did not mobilize was because they did not know how.  Science, while important, would not help, and money was not the problem.  It was a question of planting one tree at a time.

Regarding a code of ethics, she believed many corporate leaders would embrace a spirit of conservation and environmentalism.  She did not assume that all the companies were bad.  If discussed at the level of the Forum, she thought many companies would accept a code of ethics to guide them in their business in poor countries.

Responding to a question on corruption, Ms. Maathai said it was an issue that needed to be addressed.  She had seen a change of mindset in Africa.  Governments were talking boldly, saying that they must practice good governance.  She had been happy to hear from several African heads of State that Africa must practice good governance.  That gave her hope for Africa’s future.

Many conflicts were over resources and that included the Congo, Ms. Maathai said, in response to another question.  Inequitable distribution of resources and social injustice would sooner or later lead to conflict.  Trying to resolve conflicts would be one way to ensure that displaced persons were able to return to their lands.  Justice and democratic governance were needed.  Resources were sometimes so degraded that people had to fight over what was left.  The challenge for governments was to think holistically.

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