Wangarĩ Maathai

Maathai's Green Belt Movement paid rural Kenyan women to plant trees, tens of millions of them, linking soil, firewood and water to women's livelihoods and, eventually, to democracy, since protecting forests meant confronting the Moi government over land grabs. After years of arrests she won a parliamentary seat in 2002 and became assistant environment minister, and in 2004 she was the first African woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She also founded Kenya's Mazingira Green Party.