Kenya Assisant Minister for Environment

NYERI, KENYA: Kenya Assisant Minister for Environment and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai poses 08 October 2004 as she addresses the media in Nyeri, 160 mk east of the Kenyan capital. Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai, whose campaign to save Africa’s forests began with nine trees in her yard nearly three decades ago, on Friday won the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first African woman to take the award and it is also the first time since the prize was first awarded in 1901 that an environmental cause is honoured by the Nobel committee. Maathai, Kenya’s assistant minister for the environment since 2003, founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, the largest tree planting project in Africa, aimed at promoting biodiversity and at the same time creating jobs and giving women a stronger identity in society. AFP PHOTO SIMON MAINA (Photo credit should read SIMON MAINA/AFP/Getty Images)