Goldman Environmental Prize 2019

Environmental & Science Education

STEM

Sustainability

Miscellaneous

Edward Hessler

The Goldman Environmental Prize honors grassroots environmental heroes from the world’s six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands & Island Nations, North America, and South & Central America. The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk.

The Goldman Prize views “grassroots” leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.

--Alberto Curamil Chile/South and Central America--Organized his Mapuche community to stop the construction of two hydroelectric projects on the sacred Cautín River in Chile. The projects would have diverted hundreds of millions of gallons of water each day, harming a critical ecosystem and exacerbating drought conditions. In 2018, Curamil was arrested and remains in jail today. Colleagues believe that he was targeted because of his activism.

--Linda Garcia United States/North America--Organized her community to stop construction of the Tesoro Savage oil export terminal in Vancouver, Washington. By preventing North America’s largest oil terminal from being built, Garcia halted the flow of 11 million gallons of crude oil per day from North Dakota to Washington.

--Jacqueline Evans Cook Islands/Islands and Island States--Led a five-year campaign to protect the Cook Islands’ stunning marine biodiversity. Because of her persistent organizing, the Cook Islands enacted new legislation—Marae Moana—to sustainably manage and conserve all 763,000 square miles of the country’s ocean territory, designating marine protected areas (MPAs) around all 15 islands.

--Ana Colovic Lesoska North Macedonia/Europe--Led a seven-year campaign to cut off international funding for two large hydropower plants planned inside of North Macedonia’s Mavrovo National Park, thereby protecting the habitat of the nearly-extinct Balkan lynx.

--Bayarjargal Agvaanttseren Mongolia/Asia--Helped create the 1.8 million-acre Tost Tosonbumba Nature Reserve in the South Gobi Desert—a critical habitat for the vulnerable snow leopard—and persuaded the Mongolian government to prohibit all mining within the reserve

--Alfred Brownell Liberia/Africa--Stopped the clear-cutting of Liberia’s tropical forests by palm oil plantation developers. His campaign protected 513,500 acres of primary forest that constitute one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. For his safety, he is living in temporary exile in the United States.

Information about the Goldman Prize, full biographies with videos are found here.