“It is as clear as day. You cannot protect the environment if you do not have democratic governance [or] democratic space,” – Wangari Maathai (YES Magazine)
Other than being an environmental activist, Wangari Maathai was a political activist as well.
Imgsrc: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/26/world/africa/kenya-nobel-laureate-death/
In her Nobel Prize speech, Maathai stated that it was important for government to enforce environmental laws. The state in which a country’s environment is in reflects the kind of government a country has and the governance that was in place. A government who was strong enough to enforce environment laws can provide more resources and focus for conservation activities instead of exploiting the environment.
In her book ‘Unbowed’, Maathai also stated that she believed that democracy can provide the people a fairer and more true representation of what they believed in the government. Maathai believed that a strong representative system can eradicate corruption and allow for the voices of individual citizens to be heard.
Hence in her journey for environmental conservation, she became a strong advocate for democracy and was involved in political activism