Kenyan environmental activist and Nobel Prize laureate Wangari Maathai has died after a long battle with cancer, the Green Belt Movement she founded reported Monday.
The 71-year-old succumbed to her illness late Sunday evening at a hospital in Nairobi, DPA reported.
Known as "mother of the trees" in her native Kenya, Maathai was a champion of democracy and good management of natural resources. She started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources such as clean water and firewood.
She is survived by three children.