CHANGE STARTS WHERE YOU STAND
From international exposure to professional development, Goldman Environmental Prize winners receive a range of benefits to support their work as environmental advocates. Primary benefits of winning the Goldman Prize include financial support, media recognition, access to a global network of environmental leaders, and defense and security support. 1. Financial Support The Goldman Environmental Prize has…
The 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize is Monday, April 20 The 2026 Goldman Prize winners will be announced the morning of April 20 and celebrated at a live ceremony in San Francisco that evening. The event will be livestreamed on the Goldman Prize YouTube channel, allowing viewers around the world to join the celebration. Please follow…
The new year is a chance to reflect, take stock, and set a new tone for how we might take care of our planet. To find new inspiration and clarity, we’re turning to Goldman Environmental Prize winners, environmental champions leading change across the globe. In this blog post, they share their hopes and advice for…
Michael Sutton, the executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, visited 2014 Goldman Prize winner Rudi Putra in Indonesia this November. He shared observations from the trip in the post below. In 2023, Tero Mustonen received the Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting a distinctive natural habitat in Finland: peatlands. These peat marshes and bogs—sometimes known…
This fall, Goldman Environmental Prize Program Manager Laura Fernandez had the opportunity to visit Niwat Roykaew and Tuenjai Deetes, Goldman Prize winners from Thailand from 2022 and 1994, respectively. The following is a guest post about her experience. After spending three days in Chiang Mai, Thailand, attending the Asia Environmental Human Rights Defenders Forum, I…
For 73-year-old Cath Wallace, environmental activism is a lifelong pursuit. Her drive to protect the planet’s most fragile ecosystems is inherent to her identity. A former economics and public policy academic at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, Cath turned to activism in the mid 1970s. Since then, she has dedicated her life to reducing environmental harm and educating others about what we owe the Earth. Cath’s tireless advocacy for Antarctica, carried out in lockstep…
Randall Arauz knows what it takes to move the needle on marine conservation: a combination of effective policy change, shifting public opinion, and persistence. Randall, a passionate and seasoned conservationist famous for fighting against shark finning, has been advocating for critically endangered sea turtles and sharks—and improving Costa Rica’s environmental laws—for over 30 years. We…
We mourn the passing of Robert Redford, whose artistry and integrity on screen were surpassed only by his decades of dedication to the environment. For nearly 20 years, he generously lent his voice as the narrator of Goldman Environmental Prize winner videos, elevating stories of grassroots leaders even further. Robert Redford championed countless environmental causes…
A lifelong environmental educator and scientist, Semia Gharbi is the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for Africa. In our discussion, Semia digs into her work as an environmental advocate in Tunisia, starting with her Goldman Prize-winning campaign to reverse the illegal import of waste into her country. Semia also discusses her collaborative work to build…
2025 Goldman Prize winner Carlos Mallo Molina is the CEO and founder of Innoceana, a nonprofit organization active in both the Canary Islands and Costa Rica that bridges science, education, and technology to protect the ocean. In this Q&A, Carlos shares key tactics used in his successful campaign to prevent the construction of the Fonsalía…