ORDINARY PEOPLE. EXTRAORDINARY IMPACT.
Eileen Kampakuta Brown and Eileen Wani Wingfield led the campaign to block construction of a nuclear waste dump 50 years after nuclear bomb tests caused birth defects, cancer and the poisoning of the environment and wildlife.
A civil engineer, Alexis Massol-González established Puerto Rico’s first community-managed forest reserve, Bosque del Pueblo (People’s Forest), where shade-grown coffee and eco-tourism bring income to the community.
Bruno Van Peteghem worked against time and mining interests to protect New Caledonia’s reefs from destruction. On a fragile island where environmental regulations do not exist, he has confronted severe intimidation including the suspicious burning of his home.
An ethnobotanist, Nat Quansah reintroduced the use of native plants as medicine to thousands of Malagasy people in an Ambodisakoana clinic he opened, educating the community about the need for forest conservation.
Jacqui Katona and Yvonne Margarula, both Aboriginal women, stopped a damaging uranium mine at Jabiluka, land traditionally owned by the Mirrar people and at the heart of Australia’s largest national park.
Atherton Martin successfully organized opposition to halt a copper mine that would have devastated 10 percent of the original tropical rainforests still covering Dominica, known as Nature Island for its rich biodiversity.
Paul Cox and Fuiono Senio worked to preserve a 30,000-acre rainforest by developing economic alternatives for villagers who saw the forest as their only source for income.
Noah Idechong protected Palau’s rich coral reefs and fisheries from development by creating an innovative model that integrates modern and traditional practices.
Andrew Simmons created JEMS, a volunteer community development organization that uses literacy and skills programs to motivate communities to protect the islands’ natural resources.
John Sinclair successfully stopped sand mining and logging of the unique rainforest on Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, off the coast of Queensland.
