Samuel LaBudde
Samuel LaBudde’s films documenting the slaughter of dolphins by tuna fishing boats and the destruction of marine life by driftnet fleets led to dolphin-safe tuna and a UN ban on driftnets.
Wangari Maathai
Starting with a small tree nursery in her backyard, Wangari Maathai (d. 2011) launched Kenya’s Green Belt Movement
János Vargha
A biologist, János Vargha led a campaign to save the Danube River from the ecologically-devastating Gabcikovo-Nagymaros dam.
Michael Werikhe
Kenya’s “Rhino Man” walked thousands of miles in East Africa, Europe and North America to raise public awareness and money for the endangered black rhinoceros.
Eha Kern & Roland Tiensuu
Eha Kern, a teacher in rural Sweden, and her 9-year-old student, Roland Tiensuu, started a children’s movement to raise millions of dollars to purchase and preserve rainforests.
Lois Gibbs
Lois Gibbs led the struggle to have 800 families from her Niagara Falls community evacuated and relocated after discovering that tons of chemical waste material was buried in nearby Love Canal.
Janet Gibson
Janet Gibson helped establish the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, Central America’s first marine reserve, to protect the barrier reef off Belize, one of the world’s largest coral reefs.
Harrison Ngau Laing
A Kayan tribe member and organizer in the indigenous people’s fight to save the Sarawak rainforests, he used his prize money to finance an election campaign that won him a seat in Malaysia’s parliament.
Rudi Putra
A biologist by training, Rudi Putra led communities in dismantling illegal palm oil plantations that are causing massive deforestation in northern Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, protecting the habitat of the critically endangered Sumatran rhino.
Suren Gazaryan
An internationally recognized bat expert and zoologist, Suren Gazaryan led multiple campaigns exposing government corruption and illegal exploitation of federally protected forestland along Russia’s Black Sea coast.