GBM Blog

It may surprise some of our supporters that Kenyan armed forces have been working with the Green Belt Movement (GBM) since 2006 to fight environmental degradation, which is happening on a staggering scale. Many people associate the army with military action however the Kenya army has been planting trees with GBM since 2006.This innovative collaboration has now been formally congratulated with the presentation of the ‘Wangari Maathai Environmental Award’. 

Next year it will be twenty years since the first ever Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro by the United Nations.

Last week I made my way to the UK houses of Parliament, and not just to look at its grand exterior but to expand my knowledge of biofuels. Yes, biofuels. As somewhat of a newcomer to the subject, my previous knowledge was limited to the fact that biofuel is made out of plants, and sometimes out of recycled cooking oil. I also knew that GBM was not in favour of it but not the reasons why. I was interested to learn more about the topic from the panel discussion which Friends of the Earth, RSPB, and Action Aid had arranged. They had invited a range of different academics and expert speakers to discuss the impacts of biofuels on the environment and people around the world. In particular the discussion was focused on the EU’s new target, the so-called Renewable Energy Directive (RED- another RED different from the REDD GBM often reports on), which states that 10% of all land transport fuels should come from a renewable source. I was eager to find out, have we finally made one massive step into a more sustainable future?

Standing just over 17,000 (5,199m) feet above sea level, Mount Kenya is the second tallest mountain in Africa after Mount Kilimanjaro. Mt Kenya is located on the equator in central Kenya and is an extinct stratovolcano that is thought to have risen over 23,000 ft (6,500m) before it erupted over 3 million years ago.