Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan environmentalist and political activist educated in the United States and Kenya. In the 1970s, she founded the Green Belt Movement, which focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation and women’s rights. She was also an elected member of Parliament and served as Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources in the government of current Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. In 2004, Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for “her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.” See Andrew Revkin’s remembrance today at his Dot Earth blog in the New York Times, “A Passing: Wangari Maathai.”
