Maathai, Wangari Muta, << mah TY, wahn GAHR ee MOO tah >> (1940-2011), was a Kenyan activist and environmentalist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She received the award for her efforts to protect the environment and promote economic development, democracy, human rights, and women’s rights. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an organization devoted to environmental conservation and community development in Kenya. She was the first African woman to win the prize, and the first person to win the prize for environmental protection work.
Maathai established the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to encourage Kenyan women to take active roles in improving their living conditions. The movement, made up mainly of women, has fought deforestation (the destruction of forests) by organizing widespread tree-planting efforts in Kenya. Because most Kenyans depend on wood for cooking fuel, the declining number of trees had made it difficult for women to cook enough food for their families. By planting millions of trees, the movement has improved nutrition, protected the environment, and encouraged self-reliance for the Kenyan people. The movement also promotes environmental activism throughout Africa. As a result, programs modeled after those of the Green Belt Movement have been launched in several African countries.
In the late 1980’s, Maathai began actively opposing the policies of Kenya’s president, Daniel T. arap Moi, and she was arrested numerous times. In 1997, she ran unsuccessfully for president of Kenya. In 1999, she was attacked by security guards and seriously injured during a protest against the clearing of forestland near Nairobi. Kenya’s Constitution required Moi to step down as president at the end of his term in 2002. Later that year, Maathai was elected to Kenya’s National Assembly. In 2003, she was named assistant minister for environment, natural resources, and wildlife. 
Maathai was born on April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya. She went to the United States for her college education. In 1964, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Mount St. Scholastica College (now part of Benedictine College) in Kansas. In 1965, she received a master’s degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh. After returning to Kenya, she earned a doctor’s degree in anatomy from the University of Nairobi in 1971. She later became the first woman professor at the University of Nairobi. Maathai wrote The Green Belt Movement (1985) and The Green Belt Movement: Sharing the Approach and the Experience (1988). She died on Sept. 25, 2011.
