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Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner, Wangari Maathai,
Monday spoke against widespread practices, such as forest farming, that,
she says, are responsible for deforestation in her country. Ms.
Maathai said forest protection is her top priority.
Ms. Maathai told reporters before the opening of the Conference of
Women Ministers for the Environment that Kenya's forests have been
steadily cleared over the past 70 years to
make way for plantations of exotic species. She says the
policy has destroyed the country's biological diversity and water
reservoirs.
Ms. Maathai said he hopes the recognition that goes with winning the
Nobel Peace Prize will motivate her government to stop the deforestation
of Kenya.
"This recognition in many way[s] endorses the campaign and brings it to
the forefront so that leaders in this country can really realize that
protecting the forest in this country is a matter of life and death," she
said.
The Nobel Peace Laureate said the biggest challenge facing the
government is to make people understand that forest destruction is irreversible.
"When you talk of forest, they think that any tree standing can make a
forest, and we are trying to explain that forests are systems, they are
ecosystems, and must be protected like that," said Wangari Maathai.
Ms. Maathai, who serves as Kenya's deputy environment minister, planted
a tree at the U.N. complex in Nairobi before addressing the opening
session of the women ministers' conference.
She urged the participants to be persistent and courageous in their
efforts to protect the environment. | 
