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.
Robert Brown
Bob Brown gave up his medical practice to launch a successful national grassroots campaign against the damming of Tasmania’s Franklin River, Australia’s last free-flowing river.
Nick Carter
Using sparse resources, Nick Carter brought together six African countries to create the world’s first multinational enforcement body to fight rampant illegal wildlife trafficking.
Ruth Buendía
Overcoming a history of traumatic violence, Ruth Buendía united the Asháninka people in a powerful campaign against large-scale dams that would have once again uprooted indigenous communities still recovering from Peru’s civil war.
Helen Slottje
Using a clause in the state constitution that gives municipalities the right to make local land use decisions, 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.