Wangari Maathai Quotes

You cannot blame the mismanagement of the economy or the fact that we have not invested adequately in education in order to give our people the knowledge, the skills and the technology that they need in order to be able to use the resources that Africa has to gain wealth.

Women are responsible for their children, they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve.

When you think of all the conflicts we have – whether those conflicts are local, whether they are regional or global – these conflicts are often over the management, the distribution of resources. If these resources are very valuable, if these resources are scarce, if these resources are degraded, there is going to be competition.

When I first started, it was really an innocent response to the needs of women in rural areas. When we started planting trees to meet their needs, there was nothing beyond that. I did not see all the issues that I have to come to deal with.

We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation to conserve the environment so that we can bequeath our children a sustainable world that benefits all.

We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment.

We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.

There’s a general culture in this country to cut all the trees. It makes me so angry because everyone is cutting and no one is planting.

That’s the way I do things when I want to celebrate, I always plant a tree. And so I got an indigenous tree, called Nandi flame, it has this beautiful red flowers. When it is in flower it is like it is in flame.

Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I doubt that because we have been living with monkeys from time immemorial, others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that.

It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.

It’s a matter of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are facing extinction and it is a man-made problem.

It would be good for us Africans to accept ourselves as we are and recapture some of the positive aspects of our culture.