March 3 marks the fourth annual Wangari Maathai Day which celebrates the legacy of Green Hero, Professor Wangari Muta Maathai.
Since 2012, Africa’s Environment Day has been celebrated in conjunction with Wangari Maathai Day to pay tribute to the late Nobel Laureate’s green legacy.
Please join the Green Belt Movement to honour Wangari’s visionary work by sharing your favorite quotes, stories and photos of Wangari Maathai. #WangariMaathaiday2015
Below is the photo Green Heroes will share to commemorate the woman whose vision and determination inspired the U.N.’s One Billion Tree project. A story we love to share is how the project came to be named. Back in 2006, the United Nation’s Environment Program launched the project as a response to global warming. Inspired by Wangari’s response to one corporation’s plan to plant one million trees, she said “that’s great, but what we really need is to plant a billion trees!” By 2011 this number was far surpassed with over 12 billion trees being planted worldwide.
Sadly Wangari passed away in September, 2011. However she lives on in the people and the landscape she changed forever.

Wangari with Joan Prowse and Lina Cino in Montreal