Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement (1977–2004)
Kenyan biologist Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, mobilizing rural women to plant trees to counter deforestation. The movement spread across Africa and planted over 30 million trees. Maathai was beaten, arrested, and jailed for her activism, which expanded from environmental conservation into democracy and women's rights advocacy.
The Green Belt Movement became a model for community-based environmental action across Africa, directly improving livelihoods in rural Kenya.
Maathai won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize — the first laureate recognized primarily for environmental work — establishing the precedent that environmental activism constitutes peacebuilding. She had won the Goldman Prize in 1991.
Maathai's trajectory — Goldman Prize winner who later won the Nobel — illustrates how the Goldman Prize identifies grassroots leaders whose work has systemic impact. The 2026 all-women cohort echoes Maathai's demonstration that women-led environmental movements produce durable institutional change.