Ordinary people who took extraordinary actions to protect the planet from mining giants, plastic companies and energy firms are among the winners of this year’s Goldman environmental prize, dubbed the ‘Green Nobel prize’.
This year’s recipients included Batmunkh Luvsandash (main picture), who was instrumental in creating a vast protected area in Mongolia’s Dornogovi province. It now forms an important bulwark against Mongolia’s mining boom.
Also honoured were Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika (pictured), who campaigned to protect the Vjosa River in Albania from a dam development. The waterway was subsequently designated a national park, as previously reported in ‘what went right’.
The other winners were: Laurene Allen, who got a toxin-leeching plastic plant closed down in New England, US; Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari, who won a landmark rights of nature court decision to protect Peru’s Marañón River; Semia Gharbi, who challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia; and Carlos Mallo Molina, who helped halt construction of a port that threatened a marine protected area in the Canary Islands.
“In these difficult times for environmental activists, these seven individuals serve as powerful reminders of what is possible through determination, resilience and hope,” said Jennifer Goldman Wallis, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation.
Image: Goldman Environmental prize