Environmental activists from six nations will each get $125,000 as this year's recipients of the annual Goldman Environmental Prize, the Goldman Environmental Foundation announced Monday.
"This year's Goldman Prize recipients are battling on many fronts: from stopping devastating soil erosion, to fighting mining and illegal logging, to thwarting one nation's plan to import nuclear waste," the foundation said in a statement. "Through grassroots efforts, these heroes motivated entire nations, communities and international organizations to fight against corrupt governments, violent drug lords, independent militias and unlawful business interests."
The winners are:
- Isidro Baldenegro Lopez, 38, a subsistence farmer and community leader of Mexico's indigenous Tarahumara people.
- Jose Andres Tamayo Cortez, 47, a Catholic priest from Honduras who organized a coalition of small farmers to battle for forestry reforms.
- Kaisha Atakhanova, 47, a biologist from Kazakhstan who led a successful fight to keep her country from importing nuclear waste.
- Corneille E.N. Ewango, 41, a botanist from Congo who protected rare animals and plants in the Okapi Faunal Reserve throughout a decade of civil war.
- Stephanie Danielle Roth, 34, of Romania, the lead organizer against construction of Europe’s largest open-cast gold mine in her country.
- Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, 58, of Haiti, who founded the Peasant Movement of Papay and has taught principles of sustainable agriculture to more than 200,000 people.
Candidates are nominated by environmental organizations and experts. Additional background is online at www.goldmanprize.org/.