Foresters Without Diploma By Wangari Maathai

In “Foresters without Diplomas”, Wangari Maathai empowers native Kenyan women to take a stance and overcome the devastating effects of deforestation in their native country. Despite this simplistic idea, many foresters believed that these women needed to have a diploma to create their own nurseries and plant trees on the landscape. However, Maathai disagrees with their claim and states that a diploma isn’t needed to plant trees. In 2008, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Fish and Wildlife Conservation and Management. While my education has proved useful in many aspects of life, it is not necessary for something as simple as planting a tree. In this chapter, Maathai effectively conveys how women, even without diplomas, can be qualified …show more content…
While education does make one aware of the circumstances, such in Maathai’s case, experiences allow a person to have insight that no others may have. Maathai explains to the women that they don’t need diplomas to successfully plant trees. “These tree seedlings are very much like the seeds you deal with – beans and maize and millet – every day.” (371) The Kenyan woman had experience in growing and cultivating their crops; a piece of knowledge that would be useful when it came to planting trees. I believe that a person does not necessarily need to be educated in forestry or agriculture in order to successfully cultivate seedlings. In college, I studies in a course called Dendrology, which is the study of plants and trees. Throughout this semester, I acquired the knowledge that enabled me to identify plants and trees as well as how to identify the soil and direction of the slope that specific species most commonly grew on. We were also taught the economic and wildlife value of each species of plant and tree. My mother, on the other hand, has never attended college, much less a course in dendrology. However, each year, she grows extravagant and beautiful gardens that bear many fruits and vegetables. I, on the other hand, have a hard time making sure my Christmas cactus survives. One would think that with all of my education in natural resources, that I would be able to keep a single houseplant alive. My mother has years of experience that has enabled her to grow bountiful gardens; a skill that education has not provided me with. Just as the women in Kenya did not have an education, they, like my mother, can apply their previous experience to their nurseries and seedlings. Experience, and learning through trial and error, will produce many successful