Kenya’s Wangari Maathai has died while undergoing cancer treatment in Nairobi at the age of 71. An activist for conservation, transformation and women’s rights, she was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Famous for her campaigns against forest clearances in Kenya in the 1980s and 1990s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which has to date planted millions of trees in Africa.

She served as an MP in the Kenyan government and encouraged women to be active leaders in their community. Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her conservation efforts, and was considered an inspiration  to women around the world.

[Source: BBC]