Environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maathai, 2005 NPC luncheon speaker, dies of cancer

Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Muta Maathai, the first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, died of cancer Sunday in a hospital Nairobi. She was 71.

Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to protect and revitalize Kenya's forests, spoke at the National Press Club on May 14, 2005, shortly after winning the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Maathai's Greenbelt Movement employed many of Africa's poorest people to plant more than 40 million trees and shrubs. Maathai, also an advocate of good governance in Africa, served as a member of the Kenyan parliament and as an assistant minister in the country's environmental ministry.

At the National Press Club luncheon, Maathai explained the links between environment, democracy and peace.

An article for The Record written by Club member Lorna Aldrich recounted the speech.

Maathai "connected environment and peace because environmental degradation leads to conflict over land and therefore war," Aldrich wrote.

"We must manage limited resources equitably," Maathai told the Club. "We can only do so if we have democratic space."

Video of the full luncheon address is available at the link above, or you can click here to watch.