Don't get mad, get elected! A conversation with Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai.

• Position: Interview

Jailed, harassed and vilified by the autocratic regime of former President Daniel arap Moi, Wangari Maathai is the founder of the Green Belt Movement (GBM) of Kenya, which has supported the planting by women of over 20 million trees in that country since 1977, while also advocating for better governance and human rights. In December 2002, Maathai was elected to Kenya's Parliament as a member of the Green Party in the country's first free election in decades. In January 2003, she was appointed Assistant Minister for Environment, Natural Resources, and Wildlife. She was recently named an 'Elder of the Burning Spear' for services to Kenya by President Mwai Kibaki.

Last November, Worldwatch staff researcher Danielle Nierenberg and senior fellow Mia MacDonald met with Maathai in Nairobi. Here are excerpts of their interview.

WW: What's it like, going from being a prominent government critic to being part of the government itself?

WM: People were very happy that I was elected. What they don't quite appreciate is that if you're not the minister, there are many things you can't do because you are now working under another person. I try to be persuasive, but [things are] not moving as fast as I would have liked.

One of the major challenges is that we inherited a system that had been riddled with corruption and looting of public resources.

WW: What does your being in government mean for environmental activists around the world?

WM: Many of the environmentalists with whom we started in the 1960s and 1970s did end up in government, and a number of them became ministers. Sometimes when I'm frustrated I remember Jose Lutzemberger in Brazil. He was minister for the environment [1990 to 1992] and we were all very excited about that. Then he felt so tied up that he resigned. Because many of us are driven by idealism rather than politics, we have to train ourselves to be patient.

I'm very excited, actually. Sometimes when I go into Parliament I reflect that to be in this house is a very big privilege. There are 222 of us [members of Parliament] in a country of 30 million people, and there are 16 or 17 women. I try to remind myself of the responsibility.

WW: What are the most important lessons from your work with the Green Belt Movement that you can apply to your work in government?

WM: One of the most wonderful things we did was to [help] ordinary people become seedling producers--what we call 'foresters without diplomas'. Our main thing was to try to make...