The great of the Earth talk about peace in offices and conference centres, and peace remains an elusive concept yet to be achieved.Politicians talk about environment and laws are gazetted, but the natural world is constantly exploited and over 16.000 animal and plant species are in imminent danger of extinction. The destruction and the mismanagement of our natural heritage are bringing about environmental disasters and climate changes, which affect us all. irrespective of nationality, religion and politics.The recent Tsunami, earthquakes, vulcano's eruptions, floods, bushfires and droughts are tragic examples.

Cultural degradation and loss of roots and identity happen at the same time. At the time when the entire world is shattered by wars and terrorism, when global warming is threatening our survival, when we are confused and in desperate need of healing, bold, creative and proactive action, which appeals to the imagination, is required to reverse this trend.

This initiative has to come from the grass roots. We need to find a common denominator as human beings, part of the web of life which surrounds the planet and which we have the capacity to destroy, and so the responsibility to protect.

We need to gain the world's attention with a gesture-which, like our environment and the air we breath, is beyond politics, race and religion, and to speak with one voice one global message in a place which is significant to everyone.

The voice is music, the movement dance, the message peace through creativity, and the place is the Great Rift Valley of Africa, a monument to nature and to different cultures, indeed the Cradle from where Humankind began. This is also the place through which, since the beginning of time, millions of birds migrate every year, mindless of the wars, misery and destruction wrecking the countries below them: an image of freedom, of natural links beyond man-made boundaries, and of the symbolic timelessness of Nature.

Kenya, a country at peace, has been the venue for major peace initiatives, for Rwanda, Somalia and recently the Sudan. The recent bestowing of the Nobel Peace prize to Kenyan Prof.Wangari Maathai, for her invaluable work for the environment, is a stunning proof that the timing is perfect for this initiative, an idea whose time has indeed come. It is the environment's turn, and it is, at long last, Africa's turn.