FLORA General Conservation –

Richard St. Barbe Baker (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982) was an English biologist and botanist, environmental activist and author, who contributed greatly to worldwide reforestation efforts. As a leader, he founded an organisation, Men of the Trees, still active today as the International Tree Foundation, whose many chapters carry out reforestation internationally.

Graduating from the Cambridge botany programme, he applied for work in British-ruled Kenya. In North Africa he saw the effects of centuries of land mismanagement, first from wheat farming in the later days of the Roman Empire and after that from the grazing of goats first introduced by Arabs. Immediately concerned with these deforestation problems, in 1922 he set up a tree nursery and founded an organisation with Kenya’s Kikuyu people to carry out managed reforestation in the region, utilising native species. In the regional dialect, the local society was called “Watu wa Miti”. This formed the foundation for what was to become an international organisation, the Men of the Trees (a translation of the original name).

pp. 262 reprint #060725

• Baker, Richard St. Barbe, 1889-1982
• Conservationists — England — Biography
• Foresters — England — Biography
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