Wangari Muta Maathai is a stalwart for conservation, democracy, and human rights, and founder of the Kenya-based Green Belt Movement. Through that movement, Ms. Maathai assisted Kenyan women in planting more than 20 million trees on school grounds, church compounds, and farms in order to conserve the environment and improve their lives.
The Nobel Prize Foundation recognized her “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.”