 People do not know how much they depend on the survival of this ecosystem. So when people say they want to come in and cultivate, or they want to come in and grow commercial plantations, I know that they are digging their own graves. This ecosystem must remain as it is, it must be sustained because in its survival, it depends on our own. Wangari Madai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to obtain a PhD. During her time at Nairobi University, she began to notice a great deal of deforestation. At the same time, women in her community were complaining about lack of firewood and water. She was not only a visionary but a pioneer. What she was saying through her work and her life was that the two, poverty and environmental sustainability were two sides of the same coin. Wangari quickly made the connection between the two and started women's groups planting trees. Today, because of Wangari Madai, an environmental consciousness has taken root and many more hectares of land are being planted with trees forming an environmental green belt at cost nations and contributing to a greener, cleaner planet. She blazed a trail for women's rights, for democracy and most of all for a green environment and her desire that we plant a billion trees has got to be taken on by all her friends so that it is achieved in the very near future. The movement started as a tree planting campaign but it was a lot more than just the planting of trees. It gave people a reason to stand up for their rights. The environmental rights, their women's rights and their human rights. The little little grass roots, people, they can change this world. Initially, the women's groups were ignored because nobody took them seriously but soon the government realized that the women were being organized and becoming more and more powerful. In 1992, Wangari organized a hunger strike in Holopak to push the government to release political prisons. The women, attacked by the police, refused to give up and continued their protest for 11 months. Moe's government finally conceded to their demands and released the prisoners. I'll always remember her as a tireless advocate for social justice and human rights, an exceptional leader, a woman demanding equal treatment for all. When President Moe was discovered to be giving away public land, parts of Karura Forest to politicians in his government, Wangari decided to fight the development. Wangari, unafraid, decided to protest peacefully through a tree planting mission. She never did anything to please. She never did anything because she wanted to be popular. She did everything she did because she always felt it was the right thing to do. That was a constant in her life. It's a very sad saga that we have a government in this country that is actually overseeing the destruction of forests and the grabbing of public land. If you're going to shed blood because of our land, we will. We are used to that. Our forefathers shed blood for our land. We will do so. This is my blood. And it reminds me of the blood that Wajaki shed trying to protect Karura Forest. Her indomitable spirit enabled her to transcend barriers of every kind and description to inspire the rest of us to walk in her footsteps. The peace we don't have quite often in many places is because we have destroyed these resources. Sometimes we are just violent against each other. Human beings is a strange species because sometimes it turns on itself and destroys itself. Wangare was the first African woman and the first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was involved in her struggles for human rights, democracy and environmental conservation. She was a true leader in those areas and an absolutely worthy winner of the Nobel Prize. It is the people who must save the environment. It's the people who must make their leaders change. So we must stand up for what we believe in. And we cannot be intimidated.