THE DOING MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
In a country plagued by extreme poverty and political instability, Jean Wiener led community efforts to establish the nation’s first Marine Protected Areas by empowering Haitians to see the long-term value in sustainably managing fisheries and mangrove forests.
By organizing hundreds of local villagers to peacefully occupy marble mining sites in weaving protests, Aleta Baun stopped the destruction of sacred forestland on Mutis Mountain on the island of Timor.
A Catholic priest, Father Edwin Gariguez led a grassroots movement against an illegal nickel mine to protect Mindoro Island’s biodiversity and its indigenous people.
Prigi Arisandi initiated a local movement to stop industrial pollution from flowing into Surabaya’s river that provides drinking water to 3 million people.
Humberto Ríos Labrada, a scientist and biodiversity researcher, worked with farmers to increase crop diversity and develop low-input agricultural systems, encouraging Cuba’s shift from agricultural chemical dependence toward sustainability.
Yuyun Ismawati implemented sustainable community-based waste and sanitation management programs that provide employment opportunities to low-income people and empower them to improve the environment in Indonesia.
In the shadow of polluting factories in Cataño, Rosa Hilda Ramos led the movement to permanently protect the Las Cucharillas Marsh, one of the last open spaces in the area and one of the largest wetlands ecosystems in the region.
Orri Vigfússon brokered huge international fishing rights buyouts with governments and corporations in the North Atlantic, effectively stopping destructive commercial salmon fishing in the region.
Anne Kajir won a precedent-setting lawsuit on landholder rights against a global timber company that conducted large-scale, illegal logging in the largest remaining intact block of tropical forests in Papua New Guinea.
In a land devastated by deforestation, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste taught his fellow peasant farmers the principles of sustainable agriculture, drip irrigation and erosion prevention techniques such as tree planting.
