Posted by Wangari Muta Maathai, founder of The Green Belt Movement, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, died on September 25, 2011 at the age of 71. She started the Green Belt Movement to encourage people worldwide to protect the environment. Maathai believed, “The planting of trees is the planting of ideas. By starting with the simple act of planting a tree, we give hope to ourselves and to future generations.”
Since Maathai started the movement in 1977, more than 40 million trees have been planted across Africa, improving the land and the lives of the people who live there. Their goal for the future is to plant one billion trees worldwide. Maathai was the first African woman and the first environmentalist to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai is well-known for her achievements in environmental activism and human rights advocacy, specifically in women’s civil rights.
Will you help them reach their goal by planting a tree?
Photograph by Martin Rowe
Read more about Maathai and her work at The Great Energy Challenge.
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