Professor Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Laureate, has long been admired for her undaunting commitment to protect the Earth and local communities for decades during the Moi regime in Kenya. During this time she nurtured the Green Belt Movement, which now consists of more than 250,000 participants. Throughout the years she has helped women to plant more than 20 million trees on their farms, schools and church grounds. The work of the GBM has today extended to neighbouring African countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Lesotho, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.