Ynestra king biography

The Green Belt and Chipko Movements and Love Canal all have one thing in common -- the leadership and activism of strong and persistent women.

Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai is arguably best recognized for her development of the Green Belt Movement. She was the first African woman and the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004). She was also the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree [source: NobelPrize.org].

While serving on the National Council of Women in 1976, Maathai introduced her idea to plant trees to conserve the local environment and improve the community's quality of life. As interest widened, Maathai developed her local tree planting effort into a grassroots organization that spread to other African countries and eventually became the Green Belt Movement. Maathai has helped women plant more than 30 million trees on their communities' farms and school grounds. Upon receiving the Nobel Prize, Maathai said tha