The record
The defining act
Maathai founded Kenya's Green Belt Movement, organizing women to plant trees while challenging the political conditions that enabled environmental destruction and civic repression.
What was at stake
Her work confronted both ecological loss and authoritarian power, making environmental restoration a practical route to dignity, livelihoods, and democratic agency.
What followed
She became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, recognized for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace.
Why Pax Terra remembers them
She made the planet's health inseparable from the freedom and material security of the people living on it.