An Ecofeminist Movement: The Green Belt Movement

          This paper aims to analyze the Green Belt Movement and its essential connection to ecofeminism. The person behind this project was Wangari Maathai, a rare environmentalist as well as a social justice activist (Boyer-Rechlin, 2010). Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in 1977, and because of the success of this movement, in 2004, she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai decided that GBM is an independent, non-profit, and purposeful movement. As Delap (2013) mentions, the reason that pushed Maathai to launch this movement was the extreme environmental degradation and women’s complications of drought, inadequate water and food resources, and poor living conditions. So, the Green Belt Movement was trying to solve all these problems from an ecofeminist point of view. Its first aim was to bring local people together to protect their rights and their land by giving them the feeling of “owner of the land” and responsibilities. The activities conducted by the movement were planting trees and providing education to the local people about their environment and rights to raise their awareness. Wangari Maathai’s simple idea of planting trees was nearly solving all the complex-looking problems with the environment. According to Muthuki (2006), the Green Belt Movement planted over 51 million trees in Kenya and other countries in Africa. It was clear to see that their neighborhoods and lives were transforming for the better (Delap, 2013). However, planting trees was not the only thing GBM did, as mentioned before, the aim of this movement was also educating people. Through an ecofeminist lens, GBM defends human rights, promotes democracy, and ensures equality between genders. The movement educates women about their property rights and tries to advance women’s decision-making power. Considering all the activities and their solutions, I chose decolonization, gender equality, and responsibility ethics as the concepts to represent the Green Belt Movement better.  

          Kenya, where the Green Belt Movement has its roots, is a post-colonial country. Furthermore, Kenya faced extreme environmental deforestation, soil erosion, and political corruption during its post-colonial independence (Hunt, 2014). It is still possible to see the effects of colonialism on the environment and local people, especially women. For instance, the capitalist economy brought by colonial rule contributed to the marginalization and reduction of Indigenous women to economic dependency (Muthuki, 2006). Moreover, the extraction of resources was not beneficial for the local communities but for wealthy foreign companies. Factors such as these impacted Kenya environmentally and socially. In this case, the Green Belt Movement empowered local communities, specifically women, to raise their awareness and advocate their rights.  

           The Green Belt Movement is an ecofeminist activist movement dedicated to fighting for gender equality. This is why I chose gender equality as the second concept. Wangari Maathai wanted to achieve an ecofeminist movement when she launched the Green Belt Movement. Thus, GBM attempts to empower the local community, especially women, and gives them seminars about gender equality. GBM leaves beneficial impacts on both men and women by doing. Men are embracing and letting go of the rules that were imposed by patriarchy while women become more aware of their power, authority, and rights. To give an example of what GBM does in the name of empowering women, they encourage women to find their seeds to make them more independent and give them money for each seed they have found. Then, women planted their seeds with the help of the education they had from the Green Belt Movement (Scott, 2013).  

          Responsibility of ethics, also known as ethics of care, is also related to the work the Green Belt Movement does. Wangari Maathai’s simple idea of planting trees was not only about the environment or empowerment, but it was also about the feelings of owning land and taking responsibility for it. As mentioned in the first paragraph, GBM attempts to give these feelings to the local people as much as possible by planting trees. According to Maathai, without involving local people in the project, the project will not survive (Hunt, 2014). This is the reason she wanted individuals, specifically women, to participate and benefit from this responsibility of tree planting. In this way, the Green Belt Movement promotes sustainable development and environmental conversation.  

           Boyer-Rechlin (2010) makes a comparison between the Community Forestry Program and the Green Belt Movement. She claims that the GBM is more successful in the name of empowering women and tree planting. The author highlights the success of the GBM by mentioning their focus on the environment and women. Delap (2013) analyzes the Green Belt The movement is grassroots and admits that GBM has a unique approach that led them to be quite successful in environmental protection and promoting human rights by empowering women. Hunt (2014) focuses on the Green Belt Movement’s ecofeminist work. She mentions that GBM aims to address the interconnection between environmental and social justice. The role of gender in the GBM is examined by Muthuki (2006). According to her, GBM has succeeded in opposing patriarchal structures in Kenya. Lastly, Scott (2013) emphasizes the life of Wangari Maathai, how she is a rare activist, peacemaker, and diligent person in the case of gender quality, environmental conversation, and human rights.  

          In summary, the Green Belt Movement, led by Wangari Maathai, is an ecofeminist movement that addresses the connection between environmental degradation and women’s issues. The movement empowers local people, specifically women, to advocate their rights and protect their land through tree planting and education. The Green Belt Movement put efforts into fighting the lasting impacts of colonialism, which resulted in the colonization of the environment and local people. Moreover, they are aiming to have a more equitable community since their first aim is to advocate women’s rights and fight patriarchal norms, this addresses gender equality concept. Lastly, they encourage local people to take care of their land and be responsible for it. The Green Belt Movement attempts to demonstrate the interconnection between environmental activism, decolonization, gender equality, and ethics of care through its unique ecofeminist approach.