Green Belt Movement

The Green Belt Movement is a grassroots environmental organization that Wangari Maathai founded in Kenya in 1977 to combat deforestation, soil erosion, and the declining environmental conditions that disproportionately harmed rural women. Beginning with seven trees planted on World Environment Day, the Movement grew into a network of over six thousand community groups that established nurseries, trained coordinators, monitored ecological outcomes, and eventually planted more than fifty-one million trees across Kenya. The Movement's methodology emphasized local ownership — communities managed their own nurseries, selected planting sites, and adapted general principles to local conditions. It became explicitly political when government repression targeted the organizers, evolving into a democratic reform movement that contributed to Kenya's political transformation while maintaining its environmental mission.