Key Speeches & Articles

Professor Maathai gave many speeches and wrote many articles over the years, a selection of which is listed below. For press releases, statements, and interviews issued by and conducted with the Green Belt
Movement and Professor Maathai, please visit our news section.

Photo credit: Ricardo Medina

Speech/Article        Date                            

Statement given at the opening of the high level segment of UNFCCC: COP 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark                           

 September 22, 2009
Keynote address at the Second World Congress of Agroforestry in Nairobi, Kenya August 24, 2009                                                   

An African Future: Beyond the Culture of Dependency An article written for Open Democracy Magazine                            

 April 2, 2009

Sustained Development, Democracy, and Peace in Africa in Gwangju, South Korea 

 June 16, 2006 

Rise Up and Walk Speech during The Third Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture in Johannesburg, South Africa

 July 19, 2005 

Inaugural World Food Law Distinguished Lecture in Howard University, Washington DC 

 May 10, 2005 

The Challenge of AIDS in Africa article in Nairobi, Kenya

 December 12, 2004

Nobel Lecture during the Nobel Piece Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway

 December 10, 2004

The Cracked Mirror article written for Resurgence magazine (UK)

 November 11, 2004 

Speak Truth to Power This article is taken from Speak Truth to Power, a book on  activists around the world and edited by Kerry Kennedy

 May 4, 2000 
Bottlenecks to Development in Africa in Beijing China August 30, 1995