CHANGE STARTS WHERE YOU STAND
A key leader in the Amerindian struggle for full rights to traditional lands, Jean La Rose coordinated the first indigenous land rights lawsuit in Guyana to protect streams, rainforests and endangered indigenous communities harmed by mining.
A labor leader, Oscar Olivera advocated for affordable, clean water when the city’s water system was privatized. After a brutal crackdown, he emerged and continued protests and negotiations that forced the government to cancel the sale.
A conservationist, Eugène Rutagarama risked his life to save 355 of the world’s last 650 mountain gorillas that were threatened by Rwanda’s war and massacres in the 1990s. He helped rebuild the national parks system and protect gorilla habitat.
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.
Alexander Peal helped create Sapo National Park, Liberia’s first national park, and founded the country’s first environmental NGO. Having fled Liberia’s civil war, he sustained its conservation movement from abroad for nearly 10 years.
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.
TV journalists who researched the controversial growth hormone (rBGH) used to stimulate milk production in cows, Jane Akre and Steve Wilson were ultimately fired due to pressure from Monsanto, who manufactures rBGH.
Elias Díaz Peña and Oscar Rivas cofounded Sobrevivencia to protect indigenous, marginalized communities and prevent developments that threaten Paraguay’s ecosystems and inhabitants.
In response to post-communist development and resource exploitation, Vera Mischenko cofounded Ecojuris, Russia’s first public interest law organization, and brought the first successful environmental lawsuits against the government.
Along with colleague Teodoro Cabrera, Rodolfo Montiel Flores was arrested and tortured for organizing peaceful protests of logging that was devastating farmlands. Both men were jailed for more than two years on trumped-up charges.
