Dr Richard St Barbe Baker: What motivated “the David Attenborough of his day”?

BBC Radio Solent’s podcast and webcast Secret Hampshire, in its episode “The David Attenborough of his day” (6 December 2025), shared the remarkable story of Dr Richard St Barbe Baker (“St Barbe”), a man who dedicated his life to planting, protecting and celebrating trees.

Yet to look only at his practical achievements is to see just one side of a much richer picture. His care for trees flowed naturally from the personal, philosophical and moral values that shaped everything he did.

St Barbe’s ecological contributions were extraordinary. Organisations he founded have planted an estimated 25–26 billion trees. His 1948 proposal for a great shelter belt to slow the southward advance of the Sahara inspired what has become the “Great Green Wall,” now involving 13 countries from Senegal to Djibouti. His thinking also resonates powerfully with today’s rural development practitioners in many parts of the world.

A foundational influence on St Barbe’s approach was his commitment to the Bahá’í Faith. Central to Bahá’í convictions is the fact that we are one human family, sharing one common homeland and that our wellbeing is inextricably linked with the wellbeing of the natural world. Understanding his spiritual motivation helps explain why he placed woodland communities at the centre of his thinking, and why he balanced support for indigenous species with the practical need for trees that provide food, shade and timber for daily life.

Modern forest ecologists have stated their respect for St Barbe’s understanding that forests are communities of people as well as collections of trees. His partnership with Kikuyu Paramount Chief Josiah Njonjo in founding the organisation Watu wa Miti, the Men of the Trees, rested on a genuine respect for culture and community. Still functioning today under the name International Tree Foundation.  Together, they drew on Kikuyu dances and social traditions when appointing “forest protectors,” a vivid example of St Barbe’s belief that caring for the environment begins with honouring the people who live within it. His intervention to prevent a Kikuyu gentleman from being mistreated that same year came from the same deep conviction about the oneness of humanity.

Figure One: The Dance of the Trees which appointed Kikuyu tribesmen as “forest protectors”.

St Barbe’s first vocation was religious. He initially travelled to Canada as a Christian missionary and trained there as a forester. After wartime service and injuries, he joined the Colonial Service and was posted to northern Kenya, where he worked to ease tensions between Maasai pastoralists and Kikuyu farmers. Although colonial policy treated forests as Crown property, St Barbe believed that people are stewards of the land on which they live and are guided by sense of intergenerational, regenerative and spiritual duty. This drew him to work in close partnership, united by their common belief, with Chief Njonjo.

After establishing Watu wa Miti in 1923, St Barbe encountered the Bahá’í Faith the following year and knew immediately that it fulfilled the Christian prophecies he had long studied. From then until his death in 1982, he travelled widely, founding branches of the Men of the Trees, meeting national leaders, spending time with forest communities, and sharing the Bahá’í teachings. He counted three generations of British royalty and many heads of state among his friends, yet he always spoke up for justice when he felt communities were being overlooked—as happened in India, where he championed the rights of forest peoples despite his warm relationship with the government.

The Bahá’í teachings that inspired him emphasise justice, the equality of all peoples, and a global vision of unity: “the earth is but one country and mankind its citizens”. Bahá’í scripture is full of imagery drawn from trees and forests, and it reminds believers of their responsibility to care for the natural world. Bahá’í institutions supported his work with kindness and encouragement; he described his 1929 meeting with Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Faith, as “the greatest day of my life”.

Learn more about St Barbe Baker in Canadian forester Paul Hanley’s biography Man of the Trees. Available on Baha’i Books UK.

Written by, Dr Stephen Vickers, former chair, International Tree Foundation