Maathai, currently Deputy Minister for the Environment in Kenya's government, has worked tirelessly for three decades empowering African women, planting millions of trees in ravaged areas, and fighting government corruption. Now for the first time in its 103-year history, the Nobel Peace Prize been awarded to an environmentalist. In 2001 the committee announced that it wanted to enlarge the scope of the prize to honor those who worked to improve the environment as well as making significant contributions to peace efforts.
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