Author: elomonico

In the absence of a country-wide water delivery system, many El Salvadorian communities rely solely on natural bodies of water for their health and livelihood. Yet, nearly 90% of El Salvador’s waterways are contaminated with pollution. A significant amount of that contamination comes from waste dumping by silver and gold mines. Francisco Pineda won the…

Lani Alo, a program staff member at the Goldman Prize, is reporting from the Alternative Water Forum in Marseilles, France.  The forum, set up as an alternative to the World Water Forum (also taking place in in Marseille), focuses on developing sustainable solutions to the global water crisis. Alo reports that the World Water Forum…

Marking the one year anniversary of Japan’s Fukashima disaster, environmental leaders from around the world are signing on to an open letter issued by Greenpeace, calling for an end to nuclear power. Among the signatories are Goldman Prize winners Robert Brown and Marina Silva. Brown won the Prize in 1990 for his work to protect…

Cameroon’s minister of forestry and wildlife, Philip Ngole Ngwese, recently announced that the government has suspended 27 logging licenses from timber companies that have continuously violated forest-protection legislation. Cameroon’s tropical forests make up a large part of the Congo Basin, the world’s second largest continuous ecosystem after the Amazon Rainforest. The forest is home to…

Randall Arauz and the team at the Association for the Restoration of Sea Turtles (PRETOMA), celebrate as Costa Rica is asked to respond to a complaint filed with the Environmental Secretariat of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The complaint, filed by PRETOMA in July 2011, cites Costa Rica’s failure to enforce its own…

The film “American Meat,” by Michigan native Graham Meriwether, makes its debut this weekend in Ann Arbor, where the sustainable food movement is gaining traction. Lynn Henning, a fellow Michiganite and 2010 Prize winner, will be participating in a panel discussion immediately following the screening to discuss issues raised in the film. Henning was awarded…

Before Stephanie Roth won the Goldman Prize in 2005 for protecting an ancient Romanian village from being destroyed by a massive silver and gold mining project; she worked as a researcher and editor for The Ecologist magazine. The London-based magazine was founded by the late Edward “Teddy” Goldsmith, a long-time nominator for the Prize.  Goldsmith was…

2002 Goldman Prize winner Alexis Massol-Gonzalez and his son Arturo Massol are at the forefront of the fight against Puerto Rico’s proposed Via Verde pipeline project.  The pipeline’s planned route threatens thousands of acres of rainforest, rivers, and wildlife. In early January we reported on the campaign’s progress as news broke of a court decision…

The Fukashima disaster in Japan illustrated all too clearly the dangers of nuclear power. Ursula Sladek’s campaign for a nuclear-free future is reaching people around the world, especially in Japan, where one woman was so inspired- she decided to start an anti-nuclear movement of her own: the Natural Energy Society. Mariko Sayama wrote to the…