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Richard St Barbe Baker, Founder

St Barbe Baker was born on 9 October 1889 and grew up in England, the son of a clergyman/nurseryman from whom he first learned his love of forestry. He planted his own garden at the age of two and could propagate trees by the time he was four. On leaving school, he headed for the wilds of Canada and a life of horse-breaking, lumber camps and studies at the newly founded University of Saskatchewan. Four years later he returned to England to begin a degree in divinity at Cambridge University, according to the family custom.

But his studies were interrupted by the 1914-1918 War. He was badly wounded twice. Recuperating in London, St Barbe Baker lent his support to the foundation of a new, centralised Ministry of Health, before returning to Cambridge. This time, however, he studied forestry, paying his way by manufacturing his invention, a caravan, from surplus aircraft parts.

In 1921 he journeyed to Kenya as Assistant Conservator of Forests. He found its lands turning arid, its tribesmen unable to support themselves. With insufficient government funds, in 1922 St Barbe Baker and Chief Josiah Njonjo appealed to the Kikuyu people to raise and plant trees to make their land fertile again; together they founded the first branch of The Men of the Trees.

Richard St Barbe Baker felt keenly the need for humans to be stewards of the earth and foresaw the need for global forest conservation, irrespective of political boundaries. A good mixer, uninhibited by class or social distinctions, he had a great ability to withstand ridicule and scepticism. He spent the next sixty years travelling the world, teaching the importance of trees and inspiring people in many countries to form branches of The Men of the Trees.

St Barbe Baker wrote over a dozen books to support his cause. They were translated into many languages and, in some cases, used as text books.

As early as 1929 he was campaigning to save the Californian redwoods. He came to the notice of US President Roosevelt, who consulted him on unemployment during the Depression. The resulting Civilian Conservation Corps gave employment to over six million people in the dark days of the thirties and left a heritage of parks still enjoyed today.

He helped found the Friends of the Sahara and the Sahara Reclamation Project. In 1952 he travelled 40,000 kilometres around and across the desert on an ecological survey. He supported the Chipko people in India and led tree-awareness programmes in Australia and New Zealand, where he lived for many years. In 1982 he launched The Decade of the Trees in Brazil in an effort to stem the wholesale destruction of the Amazon rainforest and to alert the peoples of that country that they must plant trees for the future.

By the time he died in 1982, the "Man of the Trees" had been responsible for the planting of 27,000 million trees worldwide.