Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, will be the featured speaker during the 18th annual Nobel Peace Prize Forum held March 10-11 at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. The 2006 forum, “Striving for Peace: Sustaining the Planet,” will focus on threats to peace posed by environmental degradation and on the importance of grassroots development and individual efforts.

Maathai, a former biology professor, founded the Green Belt Movement — a nongovernmental organization based in Kenya that focuses on environmental conservation, community development and capacity building — in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya. Maathai is now an assistant minister for environment and natural resources in the Kenyan government. (Source: ELCA News)

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