Wangari Maathai - A Steward of People and Planet

Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), was a Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, embodied stewardship in its truest sense. She saw herself not as an owner of the earth, nor a leader commanding followers, but as a caretaker of the land and of future generations.

Image coutesy of @wangari_maathai instagram

Picture her in 1977: kneeling in the soil with rural women, planting seedlings to restore degraded land. What looked like simple forestry work was in fact radical stewardship. Each seedling was an act of resistance against deforestation, poverty, and political neglect. Each grove, a living legacy for children and grandchildren.

She once said:

“You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.”

From that first act grew the Green Belt Movement. By the time of her death, more than 50 million trees had been planted across Africa, livelihoods had been restored, and countless women empowered. Yet Maathai was clear: this was never her work alone. It was stewardship - collective care for what had been entrusted.

Stewardship in Action

What made Wangari Maathai a steward rather than simply a leader? Her life reveals the full spectrum of attitudes, principles, skills, and behaviours that define stewardship.

Attitudes & Beliefs
She believed the earth was a trust, not a possession. She trusted ordinary people - especially women - as agents of change. She held hope that small acts of care could grow into a movement.

Principles
Integrity guided her resistance to corruption. Responsibility drove her care for people and planet. Continuity shaped her insistence that what was planted must endure for generations.

Skills
She could link ecology to economics and dignity. She mobilised grassroots action, giving people the tools and the courage to act. She bridged worlds - science, politics, and community.

Behaviours
She planted trees with her own hands. She gave voice to women who had been silenced. She stood firm against authoritarian power, even at personal cost.

This is stewardship lived out: not abstract, not theoretical, but embodied day after day.

A Living Example

Wangari Maathai reminds us that stewardship is not about position or power. It is about a way of being - tending, enabling, regenerating, and leaving things better than we found them.

Her story leaves us with a question that reaches far beyond environmentalism:

Are we cultivating the attitudes, principles, skills, and behaviours of stewards - in ourselves, in our organisations, and in our systems?

Over to You

Over the coming weeks we’ll be turning from historic figures to the everyday stewards - people within this network who are quietly tending, enabling, and regenerating across the STEEPLE sectors.

👉 Who do you see stewarding in your organisation, community, or sector?

👉 Who should we interview and highlight as a steward?

Together we can surface the examples of stewardship that are already shaping a better future. Drop us a comment on our Linked-in page or via our contacts page.

Stefan

CEO, Be The Waves | Executive Coach | Father | Citizen

Don’t just lead. Steward. Create stewardship wherever you go. Be the Waves.