Author: elomonico

As you get ready for your Labor Day weekend vacation (or stay-cation), remember the enormous impact that your travel dollars can have on the local communities you visit. Ecotourism is a growing industry that has big potential for travelers who want to see the world and do a little good at the same time. 2012…

1994 Goldman Prize winner Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come celebrated a victory this month as the Cree Grand Council and the government of Quebec signed a historic agreement that will create a power-sharing governing council and provide millions in funding to the Cree nation. The municipality of James Bay will be replaced by a 22-member…

We’re extending our celebration of International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples for the whole month of August—and reintroducing some of the indigenous leaders among the Goldman Prize winners. Men and women, young and old, the diverse group of winners represent indigenous communities from all corners of the world. What unites them is an unwavering…

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson joined Hilton Kelley and other community leaders for a groundbreaking ceremony in honor of a new healthcare clinic that will provide affordable care to the low-income West Side community of Port Arthur, Texas. Port Arthur is home to numerous oil and gas refineries and is constantly exposed to toxic emissions. The EPA…

A Goldman Prize staff member recently traveled to Rwanda, where she spent a few days observing mountain gorillas with Eugene Rutagarama. Rutagarama won the 2001 Goldman Prize for leading the effort to protect the critically endangered mountain gorillas in the aftermath of violent conflicts in the region. The GEP staff member stayed at the Sabyinyo Silverback…

Discovery Channel’s Shark Week kicked off on Sunday and millions of viewers are expected to tune in to watch sharks at their most ferocious. As powerful as they are, however, sharks are critically endangered, in large part because of shark finning – the practice of cutting off fins from live sharks and tossing them back…

Willie Corduff was briefly arrested at a protest near the site where, a 160-ton truck carrying equipment for the Corrib gas project has been stuck on the road since Monday. A farmer in Ireland’s rural town of Rossport, Corduff won the 2007 Goldman Prize for his courageous fight against a natural gas pipeline that threatens the…

The five day 2012 Biennial Gwich’in Gathering in Fort McPherson, Canada wraps up tomorrow. Sarah James, Board Chair of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, gave the following background on the event: Since 1988 the people of the Gwich’in Nation have gathered in solidarity as a people to protect the Sacred Place Where Life Begins, Iizhik Gwats’an…

Sofia Gatica, 2012 Goldman Prize winner and co-founder of the Mothers of Ituzaingo, recently participated in a massive march supporting a lawsuit against Monsanto, a massive agrochemical company whose indiscriminate spraying of toxic pesticides has poisoned thousands of Argentinians. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an internationally recognized and much loved human rights group,…

2009 Goldman Prize recipient Maria Gunnoe knows that the coal industry’s main priority is to make a profit, and that exporting coal to fast-growing economies like China is indeed profitable. House Democrats point out that coal exports are on the rise, much of which comes from mountaintop removal coal mining operations in Appalachia. A recently…