While kids throughout the US were trick-or-treating for sweets during Halloween this year, 2009 Goldman Prize winner Yuyun Ismawati was busy distributing chocolate gold coins to UN delegates in Nairobi as part of her campaign to protect communities from the environmental damage and contamination that comes with small-scale gold mining, which makes deliberate use of…
Congratulations to Prigi Arisandi (2011) who won this year’s SBS Ecowater Award for his efforts to secure better water resource management and protection in Indonesia. There are five categories for the award, established in 2008 by the major South Korean television network SBS: citizen actions; society and culture; research and education; policy and environmental business…
For those of you who diligently mail out holiday cards every year, 2011 presents a special opportunity to help save endangered species while sharing holiday wishes with your loved ones. Earlier this year, the United States Postal Service issued a special stamp that will fund efforts to save elephants, rhinos, tigers, great apes, and marine…
Craig Williams (2006), director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group (CWWG) has just returned from The Hague in the Netherlands. Williams was invited to speak at the Conference of State Parties of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).The conference provided a forum for discussion and updates from representatives of 188 countries that…
Congratulations to Hilton Kelley (2011) as his campaign to train and empower communities is recognized by AARP’s 2011 Inspire Award. The award comes on the heels of an announcement that, thanks to the settlement deal that Kelley helped broker between Valero and the EPA, a new health care clinic will soon be opening in Port…
What do Ben Affleck, Cindy McCain and Corneille Ewango (2005) have in common? An understanding that local communities working together at the grassroots level is the surest way to defeat a common problem or reach a common goal. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in the midst of a contentious national election that threatens…
Francisco Pineda, the 2011 Goldman Prize winner from El Salvador, recently participated in a panel at the Society of Environmental Journalists’ (SEJ) 21st Annual Conference. The panel consisted of representatives from the mining industry, citizens from the areas affected by mining, and environmental advocates including Keith Slack, manager of Oxfam America’s Right to Know, Right…
As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, we wanted to take a moment and give thanks to all the grassroots environmental activists like Hilton Kelley who are working hard to protect our natural resources. Hilton recently stopped by our office in San Francisco to share his thoughts on the recent victory to halt…
The Goldman Environmental Foundation and the Green Belt Movement hosted a memorial service for 1991 Goldman Prize winner Wangari Maathai on Wednesday night. The service was held at the Delancey Street Theatre in San Francisco. Leaders from the environmental and business communities as well as individuals who had known and supported her work shared heartfelt…
The latest issue of O Magazine features an eight-page spread about Lynn Henning’s heroic battle against CAFOs—concentrated animal feeding operations that hold thousands of animals in small, confined spaces. Their practices pollute the air, land and water that provide the livelihood for small family farms like Henning’s, which has been in her family for four…