"We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible"
About this Quote
Maathai’s pivot - “But often” - is strategically calibrated. She’s not offering a sentimental defense of the poor or pretending local practices can’t harm ecosystems. She’s naming the asymmetry of power. The poor may cut trees for fuel because they’re trapped in short-term survival. The powerful clear forests for cash crops, mining, and infrastructure; they write the rules that make extraction profitable; they deploy police and permits to turn communal land into “development.” In her formulation, environmental destruction isn’t primarily a failure of individual virtue. It’s a consequence of governance, incentives, and who holds the machinery of decision-making.
The context is Maathai’s lifelong work with the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, where reforestation was never just “planting trees.” It was a challenge to authoritarian state power, land grabs, and the elite capture of resources that leaves ordinary people holding both the economic bag and the ecological blame. The quote works because it flips the script: environmentalism isn’t a scolding campaign aimed downward. It’s an accountability project aimed up.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: The Washington Post: Seeds of Hope in Africa (Wangari Maathai, 2005)
Evidence: "We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible," said Maathai, who studied biological sciences in the United States, Germany and Kenya.. I was able to verify this wording in a contemporaneous (May 12, 2005) Washington Post opinion column by Jim Hoagland, presented as a direct quotation from Wangari Maathai during a conversation/interview for the piece. This is a primary-source quote in the sense that it records Maathai’s spoken words in a mainstream publication; however, it is not an author-written text by Maathai herself (it is reported speech). I did not find (in this search pass) an earlier publication/speech transcript or a Maathai-authored book/page where this exact sentence first appears, so I cannot confirm that May 12, 2005 is the earliest occurrence, only that it is an early, verifiable, reputable appearance that many later quote sites appear to have copied. Other candidates (1) The Politics of Deforestation in Africa (Nadia Rabesahala Horning, 2018) compilation97.4% ... We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment . But often it is the powerful , including go... |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Maathai, Wangari. (2026, March 4). We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-very-fond-of-blaming-the-poor-for-63901/
Chicago Style
Maathai, Wangari. "We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible." FixQuotes. March 4, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-very-fond-of-blaming-the-poor-for-63901/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible." FixQuotes, 4 Mar. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/we-are-very-fond-of-blaming-the-poor-for-63901/. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
