An unbreakable link: peace, environment, and democracy.

The reality that sustainable development, democracy, and peace are indivisible concepts should not be denied. Peace cannot exist without equitable development, just as development requires sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space. In order to advance peace, we must promote its underlying democratic institutions and ideals. In large part, this is only possible if management of the environment is pursued as a universal priority. Only a holistic approach that takes these interlinked factors into account can ensure effective, ecologically sustainable development.

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The Norwegian Nobel Committee challenged the world to appreciate this link and, in doing so, broadened our understanding of peace and security. The task at hand is to act on this challenge. This entails motivating leaders to build fair and just societies in which resources are shared equitably; to protect the environment to ensure that the needs of future generations are not compromised; and to expand democratic space, particularly for women and minorities, so that minority representation can exist alongside majority rule. Setting a foundation for peace and development requires that citizens feel vested in a common future and empowered to realize their own potential in addressing the problems they face.

Sustainable Development and the Environment

In many developing countries, particularly in Africa, environmental problems are relegated to the periphery because they do not appear to be as urgent as other issues. Protecting the environment is often seen as a convenient luxury when, in reality, it is a question of life and death. People cannot survive without clean drinking water, which comes from the forested mountains, or live without the food that is grown in fertile fields watered by the rains. Even the air we breathe needs trees to provide oxygen and recycle carbon dioxide. Our very survival depends on the survival of our fragile ecosystems.

The Green Belt Movement (GBM) was initiated in 1977 with the planting of seven trees on World Environment Day. It was conceived as a practical way to address the needs that rural women were facing, specifically for clean drinking water, nutritious food, firewood, and fodder. These are all benefits that come from the land. Simple methods of caring for the environment have a huge impact on the health of communities as well as on economic empowerment and growth. Because the land had been so degraded, an obvious solution was to rehabilitate it by planting trees. Trees stop soil erosion, thus conserving water. In addition, tree planting is a simple and realistic goal which guarantees successful results within a reasonable amount of time. In the Green Belt Movement model, trees provide women with the basic needs they require to sustain their families--food, fuel, shelter, and income--since women receive monetary compensation for every tree that survives up to three months.

Working with women to teach them how to plant and care for trees was a natural choice. Throughout Africa, women are the primary caretakers, tilling the land and feeding their families. As a result, they are often the first to feel the effects of environmental damage as vital resources become scarce and even unusable. Environmental degradation forces them to walk farther to attain wood for cooking and heating, to search for clean water, and to find new sources of food as old ones disappear. When the environment is destroyed, plundered, or mismanaged, it is their quality of life, and that of their children and families, that is ultimately undermined.

In addition to planting and nurturing new trees, it is imperative to protect and conserve the trees that still stand in forests around the world. Forests are catchment areas for water; without them, flash floods would carry away the soil and nutrients needed for agriculture. Forests also serve as major carbon sinks, trapping carbon dioxide and thus helping to maintain the climate. Finally, forests filter and purify water supplies, while providing a habitat for wildlife.

The United Nations recommends that each country have at least 10 percent of its land covered with forests. Very few countries are able to claim that they have achieved this goal. In Kenya, for example, forest cover is less than 2 percent; from 1950 to 2000, Kenya lost 90 percent of its forests. To compound this problem, for the last 80 years, the Kenyan government has been planting exotic species of trees for the timber industry, often in indigenous forests. As the trees are planted, people are invited to go into the forests and grow crops along with the exotic trees in a system known as shamba. Under shamba, subsistence farmers are supposed to plant trees before moving on to a fresh plot of land after three years of farming. Unfortunately, much of the clear-felled plantations have not been replanted with tree seedlings, and some farmers refuse to vacate land earmarked for tree planting, resulting in a serious lag in reforestation. Currently, the Kenyan government is trying to reintroduce this destructive practice, partly to appease demand for agricultural land and partly to win favor with voters. Eventually, shamba will undermine the livelihood of millions of Kenyans unless the process is quickly reversed. Commercial plantations are not forests; on the contrary, they are biological deserts. The Green Belt Movement and similar organizations are trying to fill this gap by prioritizing tree planting with communities in degraded forest areas. So far, these efforts have proven highly successful, and there is great hope for further forest restoration.

Peace and Equitable Resource Management

A degraded environment leads to a scramble for scarce resources and may culminate in poverty and conflict. As resources become scarcer or are squandered--whether they be land, water, hydrocarbons, timber, or minerals--some will seek to control them by excluding others. Consequently, the excluded seek justice and dignity through whatever means they can, often resulting in conflict. In fact, most conflicts in the world today relate in some way to competition over the access, control, and distribution of resources. Sometimes these conflicts take form within a state's own borders as local disputes over water, grazing ground, and agricultural land. Others are international conflicts, such as those in the Middle East. Almost without exception, these conflicts are over the distribution of these limited resources: who will own them, who will control them, and who will be excluded.

Inequality often results from such situations, contributing to desperation and further conflict. To ensure the equitable provision of resources, a country must guarantee the rule of law and basic human rights--including the right to be heard, to eat, to have water, to receive quality education, and to live in a clean and healthy environment. Good governance is necessary to give a voice to societies' weak and vulnerable populations, even while it accepts the decision of the majority. Most importantly, it seeks justice and equity for all, irrespective of race, religion, gender, and any other parameters, which can be used to discriminate and exclude.

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Many African leaders have recognized the need for good governance in their respective countries and in the greater region, realizing that despite the continent's wealth in resources, development has sorely lagged. Through multinational deliberation and cooperative organs like the African Union, there is movement toward greater engagement by leaders in order to consult with one other and decide amongst themselves how to end conflicts, rather than wait for assistance from external resources. To further promote these initiatives, African governments need to be supported--both by their own people and by one other. While challenges such as corruption and resource mismanagement do remain in many countries, it is encouraging to see leaders committing to resolve conflicts peacefully and give development a chance.

Development and Peace through Participation

The strengthening of civil society and grassroots movements to catalyze change is essential for development and peace. Doing so enhances the democratization process and respect for human rights. Weak civil societies cannot hold their leaders accountable to the people. As a result, it becomes much easier for citizens to ignore the rule of law. In contrast, a strong civil society can also be an important vehicle for the delivery of services like health, education, and protection of the environment.

As a civil society institution, the Green Belt Movement initially started off as a way to address the immediate needs of rural women. It quickly grew into a movement that educated citizens about the links between the problems they were facing, the degradation of the environment, and governmental policy. Initially, empowering citizens was difficult because they had been persuaded to believe that they were poor not only in capital, but also in the knowledge and skills they needed in order to address their challenges. They were conditioned to believe that solutions to their problems had to come from the "outside." This way of thinking led to a dependency syndrome that was disempowering.