Goldman Environmental Prize Honors Seven Outstanding Defenders of the Earth

Business Wire

21-04-2025

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Goldman Environmental Foundation today announced seven recipients of the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize, the world's foremost award for grassroots environmental activists.
Awarded annually to environmental heroes from each of the world's six inhabited continental regions, the Goldman Environmental Prize honors the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world, inspiring all of us to take action to protect our planet.
The Prize was founded in 1989 in San Francisco by philanthropists and civic leaders Rhoda and Richard Goldman. In 36 years, the Prize has had an immeasurable impact on the planet. To date, the Prize has honored 233 winners—including 106 women—from 98 nations. Many have gone on to positions as government officials, heads of state, NGO leaders, and Nobel Prize laureates.
'It's been a tough year for both people and the planet,' said Jennifer Goldman Wallis, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation. 'There's so much that worries us, stresses us, outrages us, and keeps us divided. However, for me, these environmental leaders and teachers—and the global environmental community that supports them—are the antidote. If we apply the same passion and logic that we use in the protection of our own families to our broader communities and ecosystems, then we will win. In these difficult times for environmental activists, these seven individuals serve as powerful reminders of what is possible through determination, resilience, and hope.'
Prize winners will be celebrated at an in-person ceremony in San Francisco on April 21. The ceremony will be hosted by Outdoor Afro founder Rue Mapp, with musical guest Rueda con Ritmo featuring Son Chévere, and will be livestreamed on the Goldman Prize's YouTube channel at 5:30 pm PDT / 8:30 pm EDT.
This year's winners are:
Semia Gharbi helped spearhead a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia, resulting in the return of 6,000 tons of illegally exported household waste back to Italy, its country of origin, in February 2022. More than 40 corrupt government officials and others involved in waste trafficking in both countries were arrested in the scandal. Her efforts spurred policy shifts within the EU, which has now tightened its procedures and regulations for waste shipments abroad.
ASIA
Batmunkh Luvsandash – Mongolia
Determined to protect his homeland from mining, Batmunkh Luvsandash's activism resulted in the creation of a 66,000-acre protected area in Dornogovi province in April 2022, abutting tens of thousands of acres already protected by Batmunkh and allies. Home to Argali sheep, 75% of the world's population of endangered Asiatic wild ass, and a wide variety of endemic plants, the protected area forms an important bulwark against Mongolia's mining boom.
EUROPE
Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika – Albania
Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika's campaign to protect the Vjosa River from a hydropower dam development boom resulted in its historic designation as the Vjosa Wild River National Park by the Albanian government in March 2023. This precedent-setting action safeguards not only the entirety of the Vjosa's 167 miles—which flow freely across Albania—but also its free-flowing tributaries, totaling 250 miles of undisturbed river corridors. The Vjosa ecosystem is a significant bastion of freshwater biodiversity that provides critical habitat for several endangered species. The new national park is both Albania and Europe's first to protect a wild river.
ISLANDS & ISLAND NATIONS
Carlos Mallo Molina – Canary Islands
Carlos Mallo Molina helped lead a sophisticated, global campaign to prevent the construction of Fonsalía Port, a massive recreational boat and ferry terminal that threatened a biodiverse 170,000-acre marine protected area in the Canary Islands. Proposed to be built on the island of Tenerife, the port would have destroyed vital habitat for endangered sea turtles, whales, and sharks. In October 2021, because of the campaign, the Canary Islands government officially canceled the port project. In lieu of the port, Carlos is now realizing his vision for a world-class marine conservation and education center—the first of its kind in the Canary Islands.
NORTH AMERICA
Laurene Allen – United States
When one of the largest environmental crises in New England's history was exposed in her own community, Laurene Allen stepped up to protect thousands of families affected by contaminated drinking water. Laurene's campaign pressured the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant—responsible for leaking toxic forever chemicals into community drinking water sources—to announce its closure in August 2023. The plant's closure in May 2024 marked an end to more than 20 years of rampant air, soil, and water pollution.
SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA
Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari – Peru
In March 2024, Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari and Asociación de Mujeres Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana—a Kukama women's association for which she serves as president—won a landmark rights of nature court decision to protect the Marañón River in Peru. For the first time in the country's history, a river was granted legal personhood—with the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination. After finding the Peruvian government in violation of the river's inherent rights, the court ordered the government to take immediate action to prevent future oil spills into the river, mandated the creation of a basin-wide protection plan, and recognized the Kukama as stewards of the river.
About the Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by late San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals.