Wangari Maathai

Wangari Muta Maathai sat down with freelance journalist Marika Griehsel on April 2, 2009, to give an interview for the Nobel Foundation, which had awarded her the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in the Green Belt Movement, an organization she founded to promote reforestation, environmental conservation and women’s rights. She spoke to Griehsel about her education, her work as a political, environmental and gender advocate, and the effect of the Noble Prize in furthering her causes.

“This was the first time that the Norweigan Nobel committee had connected governance, peace and sustainable management of resources together,” she said, “and had shown that managing the resources in a sustainable way and governing ourselves in a more democratic, inclusive way where we respect human rights and respect diversity and promote equity, that it is very, very important to peace. And that when you do so you preempt many of the reasons we eventually adopt fighting each other.”

To learn more about Wangari Maathai, read her profile on findingDulcinea.