Worldfocus

Africa’s Congo Basin is the world’s second largest tropical forest — about twice the size of France, spanning 11 countries. But the vast rainforest is subject to deforestation as people cut trees for logging, fuel, road building and other development. The effects on the environment, and on people, have been devastating.

Wangari Maathai is an environmental and political activist and the founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. She also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She joins Daljit Dhaliwal to discuss how to balance the economic needs of developing countries with the need for conservation, as well as the impact of climate change on Africa and how African governments are dealing with environmental challenges.

For more, listen to our online radio show on resources in the developing world.

Also, read more about the relationship between natural resources and war in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Rich natural resources partly fuel crisis in Congo.

Wangari Maathai will also be featured in ”Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai” on the PBS series Independent Lens next Tuesday, April 14.