Goldman Environmental Prize Blog

Marc Ona was awarded the Goldman Prize in 2009 for leading a campaign to publicly expose the unlawful agreements behind a huge mining project threatening the sensitive ecosystems of Gabon’s equatorial rainforests. Ona’s efforts led to an unprecedented victory for civil society in Gabon, with the government adopting new environmental oversight regulations and significantly reducing…

After a massive storm devastated St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) late last year, 1994 Goldman Prize winner Andrew Simmons returned to his island home to assist with the disaster relief effort and educate locals about climate change’s particularly harsh impact on small island communities. Simmons was awarded the Prize in 1994 for spearheading a…

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal to cut carbon pollution from power plants by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. The proposed regulation is the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate change strategy and may become one of his defining policy legacies. While far from perfect, the proposal is one of the most…

On the 20th anniversary of the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak that killed 20,000 and injured more than 150,000 in Bhopal, India, Rasida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla led a class action suit demanding cleanup and compensation for affected individuals. In the ten years since winning the Goldman Prize for their work, Bee and Shukla…

2011 Goldman Prize winner Hilton Kelley held a book signing and lecture on May 24, in Oakland, California, as part of a nationwide book tour to promote his new autobiography, “A Lethal Dose of Smoke and Mirrors.” Kelly was awarded the Prize in 2011 for his role as a leading figure in the battle for…

Berito Kuwaru’wa of Colombia was awarded the Goldman Prize in 1998 for leading a nonviolent, international campaign calling on multinational oil companies not to drill in the isolated, traditional homelands of his U’wa people, who consider oil to be the “blood of Mother Earth.” After decades of contention, the U’Wa territory continues to be targeted…

In 2001, biologists Giorgos Catsadorakis and Myrsini Malakou were awarded the Goldman Prize for their efforts to create the first trans-boundary protected area in the Balkans, an area better known for conflict than cooperation, at the borders of Greece, Albania and Macedonia. Read below for an exciting update on Malakou and Catsadorakis’ work on the…

Rossano Ercolini, an elementary school teacher, was awarded the Goldman Prize in 2013 for his work to lead a public education campaign about the dangers of incinerators in his small Tuscan town that grew into a national Zero Waste (ZW) movement. As president of Zero Waste Europe, Ercolini’s campaign has experienced tremendous growth over the…

In the guest blog below, 2006 Goldman Prize winner Silas Siakor describes how across Africa, corporations are grabbing community land and water – and nowhere more than in Liberia, where half the country has already been allocated to foreign investors. But one community has shown it’s possible to overcome intimidation, organise and resist. Right now…

Using a clause in the state constitution that gives municipalities the right to make local land use decisions, 2014 Goldman Prize winner Helen Slottje provided pro-bono legal assistance, helping towns across New York defend themselves from oil and gas companies by passing local bans on fracking. In the Q&A below, Slottje tells us how she…