Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday 31^st January 2013 launched four new Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) initiatives valued at up to 86.5 Million, at the US Department of State (See Full text).

One of those initiatives is called wPower. wPower looks at the cross-cutting challenges of climate change, access to clean energy, technology, and economic opportunity for women. The partners in this initiative are MacArthur Foundation, USAID, CARE International, Solar Sister, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, and the Wangari Maathai Institute.

Narayan Kaji Shrestha holding the Wangari Maathai Award which was presented by Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry.

Narayan Kaji Shrestha, a Nepalese activist won the inaugural Wangari Maathai Award which was presented in Rome on September 27th 2012. Mr Shrestha was recognized for his work with women and low-caste villagers for more than three decades. “Narayan Kaji Shrestha’s work captures the spirit of Wangari Maathai” said FAO Assistant Director-General for forestry  Eduardo Rojas-Briales.

In a world fractured by the effects of environmental degradation, political turmoil, and economic crises, it is easy to forget that cultures of peace depend on good governance and equitable management of our natural resources. Sustainable development from the grassroots up can only happen if these three core issues are addressed. It was on this holistic approach that the Green Belt Movement was founded.

My own abiding interest in the study of peace and environmentalism began in the highlands of Kenya where I grew up, and was nurtured during my studies in the US and Germany, and teaching at the University of Nairobi. My involvement in environmental and grassroots issues has taught me that the connection between environmental challenges and local conflicts cannot be assessed separately as if they were cultures in a Petri dish.

INTRODUCTION

In a world fractured by the effects of environmental degradation, political turmoil, and economic crises, it is easy to forget that cultures of peace depend on good governance and equitable management of our natural resources. Sustainable development from the grassroots up can only happen if these three core issues are addressed. Furthermore, the connection between environmental challenges and local conflicts cannot be assessed separately.They must be understood and acted upon not just by academics, but by as many different kinds of people as possible – bustling city-dwellers, hard-working villagers and farmers, children, poets, dreamers – and by those who visit our country and carry away with them a sense of our key cultural developments and aspirations. Moreover, successful fusion of university research and traditional training requires the provision not only of academic resources, but of experiential learning opportunities, community mentoring, and utilization of indigenous knowledge.