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Kenyan Nobel Laureate Says Environmental Protection Key To Conflict Prevention

Kenyan Nobel peace prize winner Professor Wangari Maathai holds, a tree that she planted in the Newlands forest, during her visit to an environmental project in Cape town, July 2005. Prof. Mathai is the Kenyan assistant minister, Environment, Natural Resources and Wildlife and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace prize. She was awarded the 2004 Nobel peace prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace in Kenya". Maathai founded her now famous Green Belt Movement in 1977 while she was director of the Kenyan red cross. The non government grassroots movement focuses on environmental education, community development and the empowerment of women. Photo courtesy of Gianluigi Guercia and AFP.
by Staff Writers
Nairobi (AFP) May 10, 2006
Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai appealed Tuesday to world lawmakers to enact environmental protection legislation, saying ecological degradation fuelled numerous conflicts.

"As parliamentarians we (must) legislate laws that protect the environment rather than do politics with our resources," Maathai told some 1,500 members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting at their 114th conference here.

"It is impossible to realize peace without managing our limited resources responsibly, accountably, transparently and sustainably," she said.

"It is one thing to make a statement and it's another to demonstrate by action," Maathai told the MPs on the second day of the conference. "If we don't take care, we may end up jeopardising future generations."

Members of the IPU, the world's oldest multilateral political organization, are meeting in Nairobi for five days to discuss best legislative and government practices, environmental management, trafficking of small arms and violence against women.

Maathai, Kenya's former deputy environment minister, was honored by the Nobel committee in 2004 for being at the forefront of the fight to promote environmentally sensitive development schemes throughout Africa.

She founded the Green Belt Movement that has planted some 30 million trees to counter tree loss and desertification in Africa and has championed the programs as key to development and the respect of human rights.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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Funding Shortfalls Plague East Africa Drought Relief
Wajid, Somalia (AFP) May 02, 2006
Funding shortfalls for emergency relief for millions facing acute shortages in drought-hit east Africa are threatening to exacerbate already dire conditions, a senior UN envoy said Monday.







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