WANGARI Maathai, a Kenyan ecologist, has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize creating something of a stir. Maathai is the first African woman to have been awarded the prize for her remarkable contribution to preservation of the environment in her country. Basically, the Green Belt Movement of which she is the moving spirit has changed the lives of people in Africa in many ways, apart from being a highly successful tree plantation project.

The Nobel Committee's decision to award the prize to a woman from a continent grappling with a host of socioeconomic and environmental problems is very significant. Women environmentalists have long been doing a great job in many countries and Maathai's winning the prize is a recognition of not only her own service, but also that of all the women across the globe who have been nurturing the environment with motherly affection.

Maathai's choice as the winner has indeed added a new dimension to the aura of the Nobel prize for peace. There could be no better way of bringing environmental concerns into focus than rewarding a leading environmentalist at the highest level of global recognition. The Nobel Prize will go a long way in projecting the value of the work that Maathai has done in the collective interest of the people of her country and Africa and in pushing environmental concerns to the world centre-stage.

Environmental issues are important not only for maintaining ecological balance and a wholesome world to live in, but also for peace and harmony. The environment can be equated with peace as many conflicts in the present day world originate from the failure to resolve environmental issues.

In the ultimate analysis, the task of checking environmental degeneration cannot be accomplished unless the leading nations do their part in contributing to the whole process. They must subject themselves to the international conventions that form the basis of the fight against environmental pollution. The Rio Earth Summit and Kyoto Protocol could have had a much bigger impact if the developed nations were ready to take the lead in protecting the environment within the framework of international cooperation and understanding in this inter-dependent world.