Wangari Maathai

Wangarĩ Muta Maathai was born on 1 April 1940 in the village of Ihithe in Nyeri District, in the central highlands of what was then colonial Kenya. Her family was Kikuyu. Around 1943 the family moved to a farm in the Rift Valley where her father had found work; in late 1947 she returned to Ihithe with her mother so that she could attend school.

She attended a Catholic boarding school in Nyeri and in 1956 gained admission to Loreto High School in Limuru. In 1960 she was one of about three hundred Kenyans who went to study in the United States through the Kennedy Airlift programme. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology at Mount St. Scholastica College in Kansas in 1964 and a master's at the University of Pittsburgh in 1966.

After returning she worked at the University of Nairobi, where she earned her doctorate in 1971; she was the first woman in East and Central Africa to hold one. She taught veterinary anatomy, became head of department in 1976 and associate professor in 1977, each time the first woman in the region. She also campaigned for equal employment conditions for female staff.

Through the National Council of Women of Kenya she promoted the idea of tree planting. On 5 June 1977, World Environment Day, members of the council planted seven trees in Kamukunji Park in Nairobi: the first action of the Green Belt Movement. Women raised seedlings of native trees and received a small payment for each tree planted, linking forest conservation to income and women's rights.

An estimated tens of millions of trees have been planted through the movement: the biography on Nobelprize.org cited more than 20 million in 2004 and the organisation later more than 50 million. These are estimates that have not been independently verified. In 1986 the Pan-African Green Belt Network was founded, spreading the approach to other African countries.

Kenya became independent from Britain in 1963. Under President Daniel arap Moi, KANU was the only permitted party in the 1980s; the first multi-party elections followed in 1992. The government and party often reacted sharply to criticism: the Green Belt Movement faced monitoring and intimidation, and Moi publicly called Maathai, among other things, 'mad'.

Environmental policy was emerging internationally: after the UN conference in Stockholm (1972) UNEP's headquarters was established in Nairobi, and in 1985 the third UN World Conference on Women took place there. Deforestation, erosion and firewood scarcity hit rural women directly, which helps explain why a women's movement built around tree planting attracted support from foreign organisations.

The Green Belt Movement trained more than 30,000 women in forestry, beekeeping, food processing and other trades and inspired similar initiatives in countries such as Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi. In November 2006 Maathai was a driving force behind the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign.

In 1989–1990 she protested against a plan for a 60-storey skyscraper, the Kenya Times Media Trust Complex, in Uhuru Park in Nairobi. She wrote letters to domestic and foreign bodies, while parliament and the president responded dismissively. After international attention, foreign investors withdrew in January 1990.

In January 1992 she was arrested after accusations of sedition and treason; the charges were dropped in November 1992. During a hunger strike in Uhuru Park demanding the release of political prisoners she was knocked unconscious by police. The protest moved to All Saints Cathedral and continued until the prisoners were released in early 1993.

In December 2002 she was elected to parliament for Tetu with 98 per cent of the vote; from January 2003 to November 2005 she was assistant minister for environment and natural resources. In 2004 she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. In 2007 she lost her seat.

She died on 25 September 2011 in Nairobi from complications of ovarian cancer, aged 71. The Green Belt Movement continues and is often cited as an example of an environmental movement that linked tree planting to democracy and women's rights. Her memoir 'Unbowed' appeared in 2006.

In 2004 a Kenyan newspaper reported that she had said HIV was deliberately created; she denied this. In an interview with Time she said she did not know who created AIDS but was sure it did not come from monkeys. This conflicts with the scientific consensus that HIV arose from simian viruses and drew criticism. She later stated that she did not believe white people had developed the virus.