This year’s recipients of the international Goldman Environmental Awards were announced on Monday, with six individuals from four continents being honored for their “fearless” efforts and working “against all odds to protect the environment and their communities.”
“For the past 25 years, the Goldman Environmental Prize has honored heroic grassroots environmentalists for their achievements around the world and this year is no exception,” said David Gordon, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation which bestows the awards. “From fracking to palm oil development, the 2014 Goldman Prize recipients are not only tackling some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems; they are also achieving impressive environmental victories and inspiring others to do the same.”
The winners will each receive $175,000 in cash reward and be honored Monday night in San Francsico. Each winner and the work for which the have now been honored were documented in short videos produced by the award committee:
RAMESH AGRAWAL, India
With a small internet café as his headquarters, Ramesh Agrawal organized villagers to demand their right to information about industrial development projects and succeeded in shutting down one of the largest proposed coal mines in Chhattisgarh:
RUTH BUENDIA MESTOQUIARI, Peru
Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership 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:
DESMOND D’SA , South Africa
Desmond D’Sa rallied south Durban’s diverse and disenfranchised communities to successfully shut down a toxic waste dump that exposed nearby residents to dangerous chemicals and violated their constitutionally protected right to a safe and clean environment:
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT