Richard St. Barbe Baker

Richard St. Barbe Baker OBE (born October 9, 1889 in Beacon Hill, Hampshire , United Kingdom , † June 9, 1982 in Saskatoon , Canada ) was a British forest scientist , environmental activist and author . St. Barbe Baker campaigned for reforestation worldwide and founded the Men of Trees Community , which today acts as the International Tree Foundation . The international reforestation company took over the patronageCharles Mountbatten-Windsor, Prince of Wales . For his services to nature and environmental protection, St. Barbe Baker was accepted into the Order of the British Empire in 1978 .

Life

Early years

Richard St. Barbe Baker was born in 1889 to Pastor John Richard St. Barbe Baker and his wife Charlotte Purrott. The father ran a small tree nursery where St. Barbe Baker helped from childhood. 1909 St. Barbe Baker moved to Canada in the province of Saskatchewan , where he studied at the University of Saskatchewan theology . He also wrote articles for various newspapers and worked in a lumberjack camp. St. Barbe Baker noticed the increasing soil erosion on the cleared areas and he began to be interested in forest science. In 1912 he returned to England and continued his theology studies at the University of Cambridge . In 1914, St. Barbe Baker was drafted into military service and fought in France as a sniper during the First World War . After several serious injuries, St. Barbe Baker was discharged from the military with the rank of captain . He went back to Cambridge and was now studying forestry .

Work in africa

In 1920 the qualified forest scientist traveled to Kenya as an employee of the British Colonial Office and saw the great problems that the clearing of the forests meant for the Kenyan population. In 1922 he founded his first tree nursery. Chief Josiah Njonjo translated St. Barbe Baker's request for the men of the Kikuyu tribe . Convinced of the need of reforestation, the Kikuyu and St. Barbe Baker founded the Community Watu ma Miti (ger .: Men of the Trees , dt .: Men of the Trees ), which had reforestation goal. In 1924 St. Barbe Baker left Kenya and returned to England, where he also established the Men of Trees Community . In England he studied the Baha'i religion , which he subsequently adopted. In the same year St. Barbe Baker returned to Africa , this time to Nigeria . There he worked on the conservation and reforestation of the forests until 1929.

Work in Palestine and America

In 1929 St. Barbe Baker was called to Palestine by the High Commissioner of Palestine, Sir John Chancellor , to start a reforestation program in the desert. In a very short time he founded 42 tree nurseries and a Palestinian section of the men of the trees . St. Barbe Baker succeeded in introducing a national tree-planting day, which is celebrated accordingly every year to this day.

St. Barbe Baker visited America and the Muir Woods National Monument on the west coast in the early 1930s. Redwood forests similar to Muir Woods National Monument were soon to be cut down to be used as building material in the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge . That's why St. Barbe Baker founded the Save the Redwoods campaign, collected donations, wrote newspaper articles and talked on the radio about trees worth protecting in California. 1939 12,000 was Acres large state park built that protected the trees.

Next life

St. Barbe Baker undertook major expeditions to the Sahara in 1952 and 1964 and collected scientific data there. He lived temporarily in New Zealand and England and gave lectures at countless schools, traveled to different countries and promoted his cause. At the age of 92, St. Barbe Baker died while attending his old university in Saskatoon.

Publications (selection)

• Men of the Trees - In the Mahogany Forests of Kenya and Nigeria ; 1931
• Among the trees ; 1935
• Trees - A book of the season ; 1940
• The Redwoods ; 1943
• I Planted Trees ; Lutterworth Press: London and Redhill, 1944
• African Drums ; 1945
• Sahara Challenge ; 1954
• Kabongo ; 1955
• Dance of the Trees ; 1956
• Sahara Conquest ; 1966
• Richard St. Barbe Baker: My Life, My Trees . Ed .: Findhorn. 2nd Edition. Forres 1985, ISBN 0-905249-63-1 .

Web links

• Man of the Trees, Richard St. Barbe Baker
• International Tree Foundation
• Richard St. Barbe Baker honored as Interfaith Hero on ReadTheSpirit.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Our Founder: St Barbe - a man ahead of his time. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 10, 2010 ; Retrieved March 12, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Hugh C. Locke: In Memoriam. (No longer available online.) Bahá'í World, Vol. XVIII: 1979-1983, archived from the original December 12, 2006 ; Retrieved April 6, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.