Kenyan Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai on Monday 

Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, said the crises Kenya and its neighbors are now facing could be traced to logging and environmental degradation that have significantly reduced Kenya's forest cover.

"Indeed, the tragedies that this country is facing today such as drought, famine and poverty have been exacerbated by the gradual degradation of our environment -- including indigenous forests," she said in a statement.

Maathai -- who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her Green Belt Movement -- said the drought, poverty and lack of development were all worsened by deforestation.

Her group has planted some 30 million trees to counter tree-loss and desertification in Africa, championing its programs as key to development and the respect of human rights.

"Unless we fully understand the linkages between indigenous forests and these economic sectors, we shall continue to trivialise both the role that these forests play in sustainable development and the urgency with which Kenya needs to increase her indigenous forest cover," she said.

Since independence in 1963, Kenya's forest cover has shrunk from 10 percent of its 582,650 square-kilometer (224,962-square-mile) territory to a mere 1.7 percent, altering rain and catchment patterns that are essential for the country's agrarian economy.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) last week warned that 11 million people in Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia are on the brink of starvation in the Horn of Africa due to the drought.

In Kenya alone, the current crisis, which President Mwai Kibaki has declared a "national disaster," has killed more than 40 people and aid agencies expect some 2.5 million others to need food aid to survive by the end of next month.

However, Maathai, Kenya's former environment deputy minister who has thus far refused to accept re-appointment for political reasons, stressed the problem was not irreversible.

"Although the current situation is dire, it can still be improved if forest conservation and restoration measures are enhanced and strictly implemented," she said.

"It is for this reason that we need to remind ourselves of our moral responsibility to protect the environment for future generations," Maathai said.

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