Medha Patkar, 1992 Goldman Prize recipient from India, was recently arrested for protesting against the forced eviction of the indigenous Koliwada fisher people from their traditional land in Mumbai. Koli fisherfolk have inhabited the seven islands that form Mumbai as far back as the 2nd century BC. Today, police forces and construction crews are demolishing…
Recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s largest award for grassroots environmental activists, are calling on world leaders to attend the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro and make real commitments to protect the environment. A total of 107 Goldman Prize winners, representing a broad spectrum of environmental activists—indigenous leaders, attorneys,…
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff may have narrowly avoided a showdown on the national Forest Code reform debate late last week, but remaining provisions in the bill still pose a significant threat to the tropical forests in the Amazon. The Forest Code restricts the amount of privately owned rainforest that can be cleared for development, and…
Here are some of our favorite snapshots from Prize tour 2012. From San Francisco to Washington, DC, the Prize winners met with everyone from high school youth groups to top-tier politicians. Here is a glimpse into the busy world of a Prize winner.
During a meeting with the 2012 Goldman Prize winners in DC last month, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley stressed the importance of individual countries making their own commitments on curbing emissions and fighting climate change. It echoes the approach proposed by the team at NRDC—aptly named the “potluck approach”: “…a radically…
Melina Selverston, a program officer at the Goldman Prize, recently attended the 11th Annual Conference of International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) in San Francisco. In the entry below, Selverston reflects on the theme of the conference, “strengthening indigenous sustainability.” The international Funders for Indigenous People’s conference is one of the few places I can…
While they were in Washington DC last month, the 2012 Goldman Environmental Prize winners met with Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. This is the third time Ms. Sutley has met with Goldman Prize recipients; this time they met in the Roosevelt Room, which features portraits of Teddy Roosevelt and…
Protecting the Earth’s resources is a dangerous job. On April 26th, a Cambodian anti-logging activist named Chut Wutty was shot and killed by military police while investigating illegal logging activities. Silas Siakor, 2006 Prize winner from Liberia and fellow anti-logging activist, was familiar with Wutty’s work. Siakor commented, “I think the story of Chutty highlights…
The maternal instinct to protect one’s family is a powerful catalyst. Many Goldman Prize recipients initially became involved in environmental activism to protect the health and wellbeing of their children. From Lois Gibbs (1990) to Sofia Gatica (2012), the Goldman Prize has been honoring activist mothers since its inception. One of the first recipients of…
In the weeks leading up to the Rio+20 Earth Summit, we’ll be posting blog entries that celebrate environmental achievements accomplished at the grassroots level over the past two decades while urging government leaders to step up to the challenge of sustainable development. As the first part of a this new blog series, we’re pleased to…