Latest news with #GoldmanEnvironmentalFoundation
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Goldman Environmental Prize Honors Seven Outstanding Defenders of the Earth
Grassroots award recognizes activists from Peru, Mongolia, Albania, Tunisia, the Canary Islands, and the United States Live ceremony to take place on April 21 in San Francisco during Earth Week SAN FRANCISCO, April 21, 2025--(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: AFRICA Semia Gharbi – Tunisia 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. ATTENTION EDITORS: Detailed biographical information, photographs, b-roll, and video of all the winners are available by request or online at 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. Facebook – Instagram – X – YouTube – LinkedIn View source version on Contacts For US media inquiries: Emily Nauseda, goldmanprize@ +1 408-688-7227For UK media inquiries: Simon Forrester, simonjforrester@ +44 (0)7932 755515 Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Wire
21-04-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Goldman Environmental Prize Honors Seven Outstanding Defenders of the Earth
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.
San Francisco Chronicle
21-04-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
Winners of annual Goldman Environmental Prize to be honored in S.F.
The Goldman Prize, a prestigious annual environmental award, will be presented to seven winners at a ceremony in San Francisco on Monday afternoon. This year's overseas winners come from Mongolia, the Canary Islands, Peru, Tunisia and Albania. Laurene Allen, the sole American winner, 'stepped up to protect thousands of families affected by contaminated drinking water' in her New England community, according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation, which awards the prize. Concerned about forever chemicals, Allen campaigned against a plastics plant that later closed, the foundation said. The prize was first given in 1989, with funding from late San Francisco philanthropists Rhoda and Richard Goldman. Their goal was to honor ordinary people from around the world who did important work to ameliorate environmental problems. The winners are chosen by an international panel; environmental groups and individuals submit confidential nominations. 'It's been a tough year for both people and the planet,' Jennifer Goldman Wallis, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, said in a statement. Still, she added, 'In these difficult times for environmental activists, these seven individuals serve as powerful reminders of what is possible through determination, resilience and hope.' The winners worked on a diverse array of challenges. Batmunkh Luvsandash of Mongolia worked to protect a vast, 66,000-acre area that is home to Argali sheep and endangered Asiatic wild ass. Carlos Mallo Molina of the Canary Islands campaigned against a boat terminal — later canceled — that 'threatened a biodiverse 170,000-acre marine protected area,' according to the Goldman Environmental Foundation. Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari worked on river protections in Peru and helped win an important court decision. Semia Gharbi of Tunisia focused on the export of household waste, and, Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika of Albania helped secure the creation of a national park that protects the area from prospective hydropower development.
The Guardian
21-04-2025
- The Guardian
Grassroots activists who took on corruption and corporate power share 2025 Goldman prize
Grassroots activists who helped jail corrupt officials and obtain personhood rights for a sacred Amazonian river are among this year's winners of the world's most prestigious environmental prize. The community campaigns led by the seven 2025 Goldman prize winners underscore the courage and tenacity of local activists willing to confront the toxic mix of corporate power, regulatory failures and political corruption that is fuelling biodiversity collapse, water shortages, deadly air pollution and the climate emergency. This year's recipients include Semia Gharbi, a scientist and environmental educator from Tunisia, who took on an organised waste trafficking network that led to more than 40 arrests, including 26 Tunisian officials and 16 Italians with ties to the illegal trade. Gharbi, 57, headed a public campaign demanding accountability after an Italian company was found to have shipped hundreds of containers of household garbage to Tunisia to dump in its overfilled landfill sites, rather than the recyclable plastic it had declared it was shipping. Gharbi lobbied lawmakers, compiled dossiers for UN experts and helped organise media coverage in both countries. Eventually, 6,000 tonnes of illegally exported household waste was shipped back to Italy in February 2022, and the scandal spurred the EU to close some loopholes governing international waste shipping. Not far away in the Canary Islands, Carlos Mallo Molina helped lead another sophisticated effort to prevent the construction of a large recreational boat and ferry terminal on the island of Tenerife that threatened to damage Spain's most important marine reserve. The tourism gravy train can seem impossible to derail, but in 2018 Mallo swapped his career as a civil engineer to stop the sprawling Fonsalía port, which threatened the 170,000-acre biodiverse protected area that provides vital habitat for endangered sea turtles, whales, giant squid and blue sharks. As with Gharbi in Tunisia, education played a big role in the campaign's success and included developing a virtual scuba dive into the threatened marine areas and a children's book about a sea turtle searching for seagrass in the Canary Islands. After three years of pressure backed by international environmental groups, divers and residents, the government cancelled construction of the port, safeguarding the only whale heritage site in European territorial waters. '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 … these environmental leaders and teachers – and the global environmental community that supports them – are the antidote.' For the past 36 years, the Goldman prize has honoured environmental defenders from each of the world's six inhabited continental regions, recognising their commitment and achievements in the face of seemingly insurmountable hurdles. To date, 233 winners from 98 nations have been awarded the prize. Many have gone on to hold positions in governments, as heads of state, nonprofit leaders, and as Nobel prize laureates. Three Goldman recipients have been killed, including the 2015 winner from Honduras, the Indigenous Lenca leader Berta Cáceres, whose death in 2016 was orchestrated by executives of an internationally financed dam company whose project she helped stall. Environmental and land rights defenders often persist in drawn-out efforts to secure clean water and air for their communities and future generations – despite facing threats including online harassment, bogus criminal charges, and sometimes physical violence. More than 2,100 land and environmental defenders were killed globally between 2012 and 2023, according to an observatory run by the charity Global Witness. Latin America remains the most dangerous place to defend the environment but a range of repressive tactics are increasingly being used to silence activists across Asia, the US, the UK and the EU. In the US, Laurene Allen was recognised for her extraordinary leadership, which culminated in a plastics plant being closed in 2024 after two decades of leaking toxic forever chemicals into the air, soil and water supplies in the small town of Merrimack, New Hampshire. The 62-year-old social worker turned water protector developed the town's local campaign into a statewide and national network to address Pfas contamination, helping persuade the Biden administration to establish the first federal drinking water standard for forever chemicals. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Three of this year's Goldman recipients were involved in battles to save two rivers thousands of miles apart – in Peru and Albania – which both led to landmark victories. Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika not only helped stop construction of a hydroelectric dam on the 167-mile Vjosa River, but their decade-long campaign led to the Albanian government declaring it a wild river national park. Guri, 37, a social worker, and Nika, 39, a biologist and ecologist, garnered support from scientists, lawyers, EU parliamentarians and celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio, for the new national park – the first in Europe to protect a wild river. This historic designation protects the Vjosa and its three tributaries, which are among the last remaining free-flowing undammed rivers in Europe. In Peru, Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, 56, led the Indigenous Kukama women's association to a landmark court victory that granted the 1,000-mile Marañón River legal personhood, with the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination. The Marañón River and its tributaries are the life veins of Peru's tropical rainforests and support 75% of its tropical wetlands – but also flow through lands containing some of the South American country's biggest oil and gas fields. The court ordered the Peruvian government to stop violating the rivers' rights, and take immediate action to prevent future oil spills. The Kukama people, who believe their ancestors reside on the riverbed, were recognised by the court as stewards of the great Marañón. This year's oldest winner was Batmunkh Luvsandash from Mongolia, an 81-year-old former electrical engineer whose anti-mining activism has led to 200,000 acres of the East Gobi desert being protected from the world's insatiable appetite for metal minerals.
