environment

New Delhi, Mar 21 (UNI) Nobel Laureate Wangari Muta Maathai today said there was a need to be patient, persistent and committed if the environment and natural resources were to be protected.

"Do the best you can," she said, prescribing that each person plants at least ten trees so that he could get the oxygen required for his existence from them.

"If you are not doing this, then you are breathing somebody else's oxygen," she said, while delivering the eighth Rajiv Gandhi memorial lecture here.

Speaking on "Environment, Democracy and Peace: A Critical Link," she said it was essential to plant trees for cleaner environment and reduce climate change. "We should address the constant pressure to sacrifice forest for human settlement. We need forests...but forests don't need human settlement." In this context, 67-year-old Maathai, who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace, said it would not be possible to live in peace if there was no equity in the distribution of resources. "There were people who were living in utter poverty and there were others who live in utter affluence. Reducing poverty is crucial to sustainable development. Poverty could be reduced through empowerment of women." She said there was a need for governance which was more response and inclusive.

Ms Maathai pointed out that the people would seek justice using methods available to them -- violent and non-viiolent-- when they started feeling that they were marginalised.

In this context, she asked the world countries to be very conscious in conserving water and other natural resources. "Water is one of the resources that can generate conflict in future," she said, pointing out that there were many countries where water continued to be scarce.

Calling for reducing the use of plastics, Ms Maathai said "plastic wastes would strain the drains, besides acting as an excellent breeding ground for mosquitoes and causing Malaria and other diseases." Ms Maathai said all the countries should have at least 10 per cent of its land mass covered by forests.

She recalled how the Green Belt Movement, launched by her in 1977 in Kenya, had so far succeeded in planting 40 million trees from just seven trees they had planted on the first day of its launch.

Ms Maathai said she was impressed by the greenery around Delhi, and said she would carry the photographs of the city to show to the other parts of the world. "I have never visited a city more green than Delhi," she said, amid applause by the audience which included Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit.

The annual lecture was organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation in memory of the late Prime Minsiter Rajiv GAndhi.

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