Goldman Environmental Prize Blog

Why is the Leuser Ecosystem — an area of forest on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia — known as ‘the last place on earth’? Conservationist Rudi Putra (2014, Indonesia) explains: “This is the only location in the world where four charismatic species and critically endangered species — the Sumatran rhino, tiger, elephant, and orangutan…

“That’s right officer, I’m here for the forests — they’re here to destroy it.” This was the rallying cry of Goldman Prize winner and former leader of the Australia Greens political party Bob Brown (1990, Australia), who, along with three other protesters was arrested at Lapoinya in Northwest Tasmania last week. Together, they were defending…

In the lead-up to the 2016 Prize announcement in April, we thought it was time to showcase the incredible diversity of Prize recipients in the almost three decades of our existence. These environmental heroes come from a variety of backgrounds, with many facing almost insurmountable challenges, such as war and government repression; even attacks from…

For our first blog of 2016, we asked last year’s Prize recipients to tell us hopes and plans for the coming year. Sharing their thoughts with us are Howard Wood (2015, Scotland) of the Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST), Jean Wiener (2015, Haiti) of the Foundation for the Protection of Marine Biodiversity (FoProBiM) and Phyllis Omido (2015, Kenya) of…

Less than two weeks have passed since the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC/COP21) led to an adoption of a global agreement to fight climate change. But is the agreement enough for those most vulnerable to its effects? We asked Andrew Simmons (1994, Islands and Island Nations)…

It’s the holidays, and for many of us this means scrambling to find gifts for our loved ones. But what happens to all that gift wrap, boxes – that ‘stuff’? We asked our friends at The Story of Stuff Project to share their advice for how to celebrate the holidays while being mindful about how ‘stuff’…

This year was the hottest year ever recorded on Earth. According to scientific modeling from scientists at University College London, if we don’t want it to get any hotter and stick to a 2 degree Celsius rise — the international target recommended by experts ahead of the Paris climate change talks — we must keep between 60-80%…

Those who are likely to be most affected by climate change are fighting back — young people of island nations. Ahead of the United Nations summit on climate change in Paris taking place later this month, young people from the Caribbean to remote Pacific Islands are calling on world leaders to protect their vulnerable islands.…

How will we feed over 9 billion people by 2050, and who exactly will feed whom? One thing we do know: business as usual is not the answer. As the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director-General, José Graziano da Silva said in a speech earlier this year, “The model of agricultural production that predominates today is not…

In the run-up to Food Day this week, we’re highlighting the troubling growth of America’s factory farms — otherwise known as ‘Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations’ (CAFOs) — and what one farmer and activist is doing about it. CAFOs Unbound CAFOs are large-scale feedlots where up to one million livestock such as chicken, cattle and pigs are confined for their entire lives,…