--- title: Elizabeth Wathuti and Eugenia Kargbo Highlight the Need for Environmental Conservation | TIME description: Growing up in the most forested region of Kenya, environmental activist Elizabeth Wathuti says she saw the immediate challenge of climate change around her. “It compelled something within myself to do something about climate change,’’ she said during the “Climate Resiliency in Action” panel at the TIME100 Summit Africa in Rwanda’s capital Kigali on Friday. canonical: https://time.com/video/8CZZ6Of5/ og:title: Elizabeth Wathuti and Eugenia Kargbo Highlight the Need for Environmental Conservation og:description: Growing up in the most forested region of Kenya, environmental activist Elizabeth Wathuti says she saw the immediate challenge of climate change around her. “It compelled something within myself to do something about climate change,’’ she said during the “Climate Resiliency in Action” panel at the TIME100 Summit Africa in Rwanda’s capital Kigali on Friday. og:url: https://time.com/video/8CZZ6Of5/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8CZZ6Of5/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Elizabeth Wathuti and Eugenia Kargbo Highlight the Need for Environmental Conservation twitter:description: Growing up in the most forested region of Kenya, environmental activist Elizabeth Wathuti says she saw the immediate challenge of climate change around her. “It compelled something within myself to do something about climate change,’’ she said during the “Climate Resiliency in Action” panel at the TIME100 Summit Africa in Rwanda’s capital Kigali on Friday. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8CZZ6Of5/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Science # Elizabeth Wathuti and Eugenia Kargbo Highlight the Need for Environmental Conservation > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Elizabeth Wathuti and Eugenia Kargbo Highlight the Need for Environmental Conservation [Watch (HLS stream): Elizabeth Wathuti and Eugenia Kargbo Highlight the Need for Environmental Conservation](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8CZZ6Of5.m3u8) (25:40)  _Published 2023-11-17. Growing up in the most forested region of Kenya, environmental activist Elizabeth Wathuti says she saw the immediate challenge of climate change around her. “It compelled something within myself to do something about climate change,’’ she said during the “Climate Resiliency in Action” panel at the TIME100 Summit Africa in Rwanda’s capital Kigali on Friday._ --- Nov 17, 2023 7:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Watch Highlights From the 2023 TIME100 Impact Awards Red Carpet in Singapore](/video/2Nl8sZuS/) ### Watch Highlights From the 2023 TIME100 Impact Awards Red Carpet in Singapore [Elizabeth Wathuti's TIME100 Impact Awards Acceptance Speech](/video/YnYZrwhu/) ### Elizabeth Wathuti's TIME100 Impact Awards Acceptance Speech [Mary Robinson and Elizabeth Wathuti | Climate](/video/MxQA0tHB/) ### Mary Robinson and Elizabeth Wathuti | Climate --- ## Transcript It is my pleasure to be leading this conversation on climate resiliency and action into have two incredible members of the time 100 Community Elizabeth was named to the time 100 next list in 2022 and Eugenia in 2023. You are looking here at the future of climate leadership in Africa. And so I'm thrilled to be able to leave this conversation with you. You became Africa's first Chief heat officer a few years ago. Why should every city and every African City have a chief heat officer. And then what is a chief heat officer do Thank you very much. I'm Sam. So as we all know, A change is a major challenge that the world faces today. And he says one of the major and growing climate risk that the world faces and Different from the risk of Lloyd's sand and mud slides and other climate-related Hazard hate cuts across different sectors and defense boundaries and there is Beverly to space really available to hide away from the heating Rising temperatures according to the ipcc report shows that it's within the next year's Africa will experience extreme temperatures and low rainfall and this is what we seen across the board and so my role as the chief is officer has been to support the city of Freetown to identify Solutions build and Implement plans that will help to reduce the level of heat exposure that residents in Freetown. I expose why is also working on long-term plans and go to help mitigate the risk of extreme heat and climate change. Everyone here in this audience and I was appointed two years ago and within the time frame we have done a lot of work this year in January. We conducted our first hit a mapping assessment in partnership with no work and the result shows that communities across Freetown warming up very fastly and the levels of air pollution also is very high and we've worked with women who have most disadvantaged disproportionately affected by climate change and extreme heat to build and sustainable infrastructure to help and protect women from extreme heat. We've done a lot of work outside in communities. I'm specifically and vulnerable communities such as long to help them to adapt to Rising temperatures because most of those communities Have a very early to land space even to do nature-based solution to plant trees. So we have walked to provide solutions to help cool down in the temperature and we're about to launch a fleet action plans of the city to those amazing opportunities and experiences that other cities can leverage on in addressing heat and climate change Elizabeth. You recently told my colleagues a Time Africa's greatest resource is its young people to amazing examples of that resource on this stage today. I wonder if you could tell people a little bit about your story what brought you to the climate fight and what has your experience been? Allow me to fast thank time for creating this place for us to speak about this very important issue around climate resilience in action because of a young person from Africa. I have seen how much the story and The Narrative of Africa has been shipped for a long. Of time and it's mostly leaned on the challenges that Africa faces in Samsung the climate crisis, which is true, which is a reality but most often we have left out the stories of resilience the stories of what our people at the Grassroots levels are doing to address the climate crisis the different initiatives and solutions that are being laid on the ground and it's part of the work that I do balls around around watching with young people across the continent and I must mention it's very timely because we just had the African climate Summit that is happening in Nairobi. And this was around creating and shipping that Narrative of the African continent as a solution provider. Climate crisis when you think that's a meat we had the largest gathering of young people across the continent and that was the African with climate assembly which were together with other young people. We let the coordination and we had over 800 young people bringing their Innovations their Solutions and ideas that they're leading on the ground and I think for me this is one of the greatest, you know, Inspirations and the greatest the greatest assets and resources of the continent has it's not just about the numbers because of course the numbers are very highest terms of the u.s. Population, but it's also in terms of the solutions and they need you to set this young people are on the churching on the grounds to address Global Environmental challenges and part of the work that I do also is the green donation initiative initiative that I found the kids to ensure that young people can have an opportunity to love nature to connect to Nature and to also have exponential Landing because I believe that it's one thing to tell young p In the child about the climate crisis and about the environment, but when you teach them how to address this solution when you teach them how to bring this food how to grow their own food how to clean their own believe the whole life that experience and that was the reason why I designed these initiatives and I've been passionate about the environment since I was a child having planted my fast red age of 7 and having grown up in the most forested region in Canada that is in Erie County, which is also the birthplace of the first African woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize that has professed on Grandma side. So you can tell the gender of inspiration from my surroundings from people that have been there before me but most importantly sing the challenges around me and being you know, what compelled to do something within myself cuz it's the challenges challenges to do with different station the planet prices but most importantly being able to do everything within my power and capacity to make sure that people and our planet the same time about climate resiliency, but the story that you're telling is also about the resiliency of people what gives you that resiliency given the the host of challenges that the movement in that the planet is up against Saying the momentum a lot of times when we have the climate conferences, we can see a lot of the movements that are coming off of young people addressing challenges addressing the climate crisis, but I think the big question is how do we sustain that momentum? How can you make sure that we continue to hold on and build on that resilience that young people have and I think for me one of the most important thing is to ensure that we have collaboration and Partnerships and most importantly diverse voices because when we come together from different parts around the world with different ideas with different solutions initiative, then we build communities and it's through this community is that we are able to unify our voices and speak as one which means that when we get to This Global forums where we can use our voices to talk about the walk will do back at home and how the wealthy due back at home can also be impacted when different people around the world and take action to address the climate crisis that thing for me. Has been the most important thing being able to build those communities being able to build those movements everyday we talk about systems we talked about how you know, the economy system is the system that exists right now that make it challenging for people to to leave Thrive and survive and that make it challenging for us to have what we call Tammy Justice. This system's can only be changed by movement. And unless we are able to sustain the movements around buildings communities make sure that we have enough resources to sustain this movement. Then it's going to be very difficult for us to address the issue of changing the system. I think for me that is one of the key lessons and also walking around with young people. It's being able to make sure that you know, we can support the initiative that they're doing on the grounds directly. We can be able to make sure that we are building their capacities in the same way that capacities of been billed for well established organizations for new people in higher level. How can you make sure that the same capacities the same expertise the same resources can be accessed by young people regardless of whether they're at the Grassroots level, Let me make sure that we are powering them enough and filling their energy feeling their part to keep making a difference by supporting what they're trying to do on the ground because that change and stacked X all of these millions of young people is what is making the real difference in the world and for them. It's about urgency of of the of the climate crisis and we see the address and how we see the address and how we should have received. The agency is by taking action ourselves. And I think if we can continue to support such voices bring more of this voice is to such platforms to make sure that the wild can get to listen to this voice isn't not just listen to them, but make sure that their ideas their Solutions day Novation are well implemented and also included in the decision-making. IPhones everywhere because I think it's really important when we talked about and diverse voices. I think such a platform like this is an amazing opportunity to get people from different sectors from different backgrounds and different expertise to come to the table and you know talk about issues lots of planning. But again, it's also it's also very crucial to ensure that those who believe in the impact. I also brought into the conversation and have a space for their voices to be had. So communities people live in a community. There are a lot of lessons that you can learn from engage in communities because they are leaving it in the moment. And so unless you always be his face as she said for young people for women and for diverse voices do to have the space for them. Voices to be had its really pretty cool and important because a game in Africa. I think the the time climate change is really very popular than the actual education around what climate change how can I adapt? What can I do to help support mitigation? Is there a particular example? Yes, so and that's why in Freetown for us. We have been using a bottom top approach working with communities to Cool Design & Co creates project and solutions because Community the path of the problem must be part of the solution. One of the work that we are doing which is a flagship programme is a tree planting. So because of a tragic crisis that we encounter in 2017 where a million people and over 300,000 people and not realizing the property in a single Day brunches to the And that we need to take action and so together. We communities we could design the feet down the street on campaign to plant and grow a million trees by the end of the year. So it's more about the the growth of the trees the sustainability being able to create green jobs cuz you have a lot of Youth and a lot of people with inner cities that are in unemployed to bringing them into being part of the solution, but also in terms of long-term planning, cuz one thing we know is that resources as guests and one of the problems that we have been facing and have been talkin about time. After time is the access to climate Finance the access to supports additive adaptation work in cities. This is crucial so we have designed a modal that is self sustainable and a Modell's that Be invested itself. So it's working with communities to plant the trees to grow the trees over time and communities have been given incentives to plants and grow the trees while we also brought technology into you know, as part of the solution. So we've created a platform which we called and not. Tri-town Tracker app to come and if you go there you will see all of the trees that's be planted in Freetown the different areas that we planted the trees the age of the trees the location of the species types, but also the person who is taking care of the trees and so I'm that has given us an opportunity to create transparency and a sustainable management model which gives us an opportunity to not take the trees into the investment platform, which is the stage where we are in cuz we do know that even though we are Leveraging local resources such as nature-based solution and people because those are at a main resources natural resources that we have. We are also seeking International opportunities. We know that that is a space for investment into the Cabin Market because one of the things that we do know is that trees sequester carbon and so you can get up set a time for planting trees which can give you an investment which you can use to be invest in communities to solve that the climate issues and kind of vulnerable it is that he has a sweet and so that's the journey we've been in Elizabeth one of the things that we've been talking about today across these conversations is the idea of privileging African Solutions across the continent you and I were talking back stage about Kenya just having national tree day. I love if you could tell the story of that project and also, you know what examples exist from Kenya that you think we should be replicated in other countries countries across the continent had a public holiday that was declared just for the citizens to plant trees by his Excellency the president of Kenya and we saw how many people came up communities churches and religious institutions organizations. Everybody had organized something for that day for people that did not have an activity to go and plant trees. And I think that you know just natural called and seeing people go out there think people hitting to that call and this is a call to make sure that the country attends the 15 billion should bring initiative by the ER 2032 and I think this is a huge opportunity for everybody in terms of how we can create opportunities for all communities for young people because this Chieftain deal and she's also have been produced, you know, a bike communities by Young People by institutions and it's somewhat more potential to make sure that we have this whole perspective of restoration and it's also going Beyond just planting trees with a call to groceries and buy groceries. It's making sure that the trees that have been planted can be accounted for in terms of the survival rate in the next day and the next two years and also that we can continue to protect the already existing account systems the forest and the trees around because I think this is the most important solution. I need in terms of addressing the climate crisis. No just planting but also being able to protect what already exists and out of the work that we've been doing for instance at the original initiative. We first started with the campaign that we dump adopt-a-tree campaign and we started tapping into the power of Institutions working with children walking with schools to make sure that every child in every school should have changed it to plants and I do poetry each other again looking at the holistic approach of it that environment and climate is not just about what we see it as but it's so much interconnected with all walks of life is interconnected to have it has a connected to food is interconnected to Transportation it set up on Netflix with a condom. It's literally interconnected to all the diver to all the sketches of life. And I think having seen this we also realize that we needed to begin, you know, the echo school project where we even started picking the significant as in the school compounds and Done to establish the full Forest where we plant mixed species of fruit trees and the mix pieces were to ensure that the children have good nutrition source of seasons. And at the same time these would supplement the school swimming program and at the same time which would give the young people and the children that sense of belonging in that sense of purpose that they can contribute to us Environmental Conservation in the soul even during the tree planting. These are some of the things that we were doing with a little down people to make sure that even the kind of trees that people are planting a trees that have a value for instance for the farmers trees that can give them a commercial value because the trees that you can plan for example, the fruit is like avocados and Macadamia. These are the kind of fruit is that we would give to the pharmacy so that at the end of the day, it's not just planting but the Surplus can go to the market and they can be able to have something that generate income for them because we also need to I've just kind of incentives if this Sim communities and people at the grass roots that are most affected an impacted by the climate crisis. So as we encourage them to conserve as we encourage them to participate in climates conversations. We also need to make sure that we are creating programs that enable them to also have that income generating process because they also need to feed their families. They need to take the children to school all of these perspectives and I think that then give them a lot more passion a lot more motivation to keep doing the work that they do and so these are some of the things that we love to also continue upscale, of course across the country across the border to make sure that we can have impacts of projects that enables people to drive and survive at the same time. And I think if we are able to have that police take approach understanding that the environment and climate is not just when Remington climate organization, it's not just when Romans and climate activist or environment and climate It's for all of us because the air we breathe the food we eat, you know everything about her has literally everything about this planet is very much based on how well we treat our ecosystems how well we can be able to, you know, Thrive and survive people and our planet. How was it can be able to even make our economies grow at the same time as we protect our planet. I think that understanding is what has also enabled some of this, you know initiatives to keep growing because they started in cage with literally all the issues that we are trying to address as Humanity's last question for you both those of us who follow the climate story can easily fall into despair there. There's so many examples of things that aren't working you both have committed to making this work and approving the planet. Where do you find your own personal resiliency? I think Sammy is just knowing that you just can sit and wait and saying all of the destruction and loss of life in loss of property knowing that something can be done about it to change the the narratives in to change the situation. We just need to and we just have to walk together and I'm addressing climate change needs to be an inclusive solution. We need people in all levels knows that meant I'm of a society to to join hand and two walk together to ensure that we are addressing the issues and we are making a delivery changes. We also definitely need the support of the national government back in cities and to deliver on their commitment. We also The private sector we talked about in the Chiefs and collaboration. Most of the work that we have been doing has been, you know, based on potential ethernet Vision opportunities externally and so I believe that from what we've shared that is somewhat sustained a g. There's so much learning and experience across the board from Kigali to Nairobi South Africa Ghana in Freetown a lot of lessons that we can draw from and land from and ensuring that we are empowering communities. We are providing jobs for the young people be addressing a climate issues and vulnerabilities and we are also learning voices to the conversation which we doing right now to round out this conversation. What gives you a hoe? So I have a lot of things that I would say give me hope because in the face of challenges, it's very easy to feel overwhelmed. It's very easy to be first-rate said it's very easy to wants to not carry on but the fact that my passion for the environment is deeply rooted in you know, what surrounds deeply rooted in my surroundings deeply rooted in sing people happy in sing people, you know, living their lives without the kind of challenges for the word live that the Wallace racing today. I think for me that is one of the reasons why I keep doing what I do whenever I walk to a place and I see for example women have to work for long distance is to look for water. My next question is how can we get this community to have a long-term supply of water to have them access? What and I think that for me is one example of a whale. Which challenges compel me to take action challenges drive me to take action that when I am frustrated. Also, I find a way to file that frustration and it gives me 100 wants to do something for justice challenges and the second thing that gives me hope is seeing life changing its sing children, for example in the schools that you walked with happy and you know jingle in their studies because they have just established a green space that they did not have before we did a project in their school since children 10 children excited because they have something nutritious to eat. They can enjoy the fruits in the school compound. I think for me this life-changing stories that are as a result of some of the projects that you know, I'm doing back at home with the communities with the school is one of the reasons why I have hope every day to keep going and just a very practical example of why I even did the Apache camp in the first time. I went to a school Remember just about like 20 siblings and we could see the energy and the passion and the children. They all wanted to have a tree each and I think that compelled me again to make sure that every time I'm getting on every child has an opportunity to plant and a Dollar Tree in the school compound and I think this most recent and this expresses a what gives me hope and is that thing that gives me hope is that community that movement fat family that we've been able to be lost as young people being able to walk together being able to partner to collaborate and share ideas are talented but most importantly being able to encourage one another and remind one another that we are the ones that are going to change the future of this planet. We are the people that are going to make the difference and if we don't let nobody else will I think for me these are some of the few things that give me hope and fill my energy to keep going Well, you're getting a combo Elizabeth Duty you give me hope. Thank you very much for this conversation. 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