The symposium will focus on how integrated management of natural resources (water, air, land, green environment) fosters revitalization of the urban environment overall, including physical, social, environmental and economic aspects.

Keynote speaker is the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai, who has served as an advisor to the Edens Lost & Found project. She introduced her tree-planting concept to ordinary citizens in 1976 and went on to develop it into the Green Belt Movement, a broad-based, grassroots organization whose main focus is helping women’s groups plant trees to conserve the environment and improve quality of life. Through GBM, she has helped women plant more than 30 million trees on their farms, on schools, and on church compounds. GBM also conducts educational campaigns to raise awareness about women's rights, civic empowerment, and the environment throughout Kenya and Africa.

Professor Maathai is listed in United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global 500 Hall of Fame and was named one of the 100 Heroines of the World. In June 1997, Professor Maathai was elected by Earth Times as one of 100 people in the world who have made a difference in the environmental arena. In 2005, Professor Maathai was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 most powerful women in the world. She also has received honorary doctoral degrees from several institutions around the world, among them Williams College in Massachusetts (1990), Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1994), the University of Norway (1997) and Yale University (2004).

Organizers are the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Urban Research, and Penn's Office of the Provost's Global Forum as well as Edens Lost & Found and the Media and Policy Center Foundation.

Edens Lost & Found is a multi-media effort covering stories of urban sustainability in four cities - Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Seattle. The Edens Lost & Found broadcast series is being aired on PBS. Edens Lost and Found also includes a book and website. Trolley tours will be available so symposium participants may observe exemplary Philadelphia sites featured in Edens materials.

For More Information About The Conference Contact:
Chela R. Kleiber
ckleiber@pennhort.org
215-988-8800

Education Services
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
100 North 20th Street
5th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103-1495