Saluting the unsung local heroes

Richard Goldman, BBC Green Room 20 Apr 09;

Richard Goldman, founder of the "green Nobel prize", says it is vital to recognise the efforts of grassroots activists. In this week's Green Room, he explains why he believes some of the world's most powerful people could learn a lesson or two from the winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

As governments around the world struggle with the crushing economic downturn and increasingly scarce natural resources, leaders at the grassroots level are continuing the critical work that often goes unnoticed, promoting environmental health, civil society, and reform in the face of great hardship.

The Goldman Environmental Prize, an award created by my family 20 years ago, honours fledgling leaders who exemplify unwavering commitment to their struggles; a quality that is more relevant now than ever.

In the past months, I have watched the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world scramble to solve problems that, in all likelihood, could have been prevented if leaders had exhibited more foresight and less greed.

The downturn has served to shine a light on the irresponsible tactics used for short-term gains over the course of many years. Inevitably, business as usual will no longer suffice.

'Local leaders'

With this shift comes the opportunity to rethink the way progress is made.

By looking to the grassroots, where small-scale community and economic development is flourishing and networks of like-minded organisations are building real infrastructure, we may be able to find a new way forward built on community involvement and stability instead of a financial house of cards.

We started the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1989, before the save-the-Earth mantra of the 1990s had taken root.

My late wife, Rhoda, and I had long supported land conservation efforts in California and felt a deep connection to the environment.

One morning in 1989, as I sat with my daily breakfast and newspaper, I read about the most recent Nobel laureates and wondered if there was a comparable award for environmental work.

We asked a staff member at our foundation to do some research and he found that nothing yet existed to recognise environmental work on an international stage, thus the Goldman Prize was born.

Our choice to focus specifically on grassroots environmental leaders was unique at the time.

Unsung heroes

In developing the prize, we reached out to organisations working in the field on each of the world's inhabited continental regions for help in identifying worthy candidates. The response was overwhelming.



Reading through the nominations, it became clear to us that much of the critical advocacy for the environment around the world was being taken on by small groups with little or no financial support.

Unsung heroes continue to risk their lives and livelihoods every day to protect the environment and speak out against corruption on behalf of their communities.

We were awestruck by these plights and committed to focusing our prize on these fledgling leaders.

Twenty years later, this mission continues. Each year, we honour a total of six grassroots leaders, one from each of the world's inhabited continental regions.

Each of the winners receives a $150,000 (£100,000) cash award and undertakes a US media tour to San Francisco and Washington, DC.

The group is always diverse, with indigenous leaders, scientists, lawyers, and community organisers.

Yet there are ties that bind every recipient: they are ordinary citizens taking on extraordinary struggles and they do so with little expectation of fame or wealth.

August alumni

In the ensuing years, we have found that the Goldman Prize has served to elevate many up-and-coming leaders within their own countries and on the international level.

Wangari Maathai, who won the Goldman Prize in 1992, went on to serve in Kenya's parliament and win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

Her international Green Belt Movement, which empowers women to plant trees and participate in environmental stewardship, continues growing across continents.

She has emerged as a force within the global sustainability movement, yet continues to engage the grassroots.

Recognising the importance of continuing to grow a vibrant and committed citizenry, Ms Maathai is helping to shift attitudes and personal actions around sustainability from the bottom up.

As governments develop economic recovery plans in the wake of the global financial meltdown, I strongly urge leaders to look to the grassroots for help in forging a new way forward.

Given a voice, financial support, and recognition, grassroots groups can help to enact lasting change through on-the-ground campaigning and advocacy.

Around the globe, grassroots groups are connecting via the internet and developing vast international networks that efficiently work together for common goals. The cross-cultural co-operation is astounding.

Leaders from seemingly disparate movements are coming together and recognising that environmental health is directly related to economic development and social justice.

As these previously separate movements merge into a potent force advocating on behalf of the world's future, we should take notice and find ways to bring them into the process of developing a new, more secure future.

Richard N Goldman is the founder and president of the Goldman Environmental Prize

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

Six Global Campaigners Win "Environmental Nobels"
Peter Griffiths, PlanetArk 21 Apr 09;

LONDON - From the rainforests of Africa to the mountain-top coal mines of West Virginia, six campaigners who have fought governments and industry to protect the planet won prestigious Goldman Environmental Prizes on Sunday.

The awards, often referred to as the Nobel Prizes of the environmental world, went to activists in six continents who took on everything from toxic chemical dumps in the former Soviet Union to ship-breaking in Asia.

Previous winners of the award, established in 1990 by two US philanthropists, include the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, hanged in 1995 after leading protests against oil companies in Nigeria.

This year's African winner is Marc Ona Essangui, who campaigned against plans by a Chinese state-owned company to open an iron ore mine in the rainforests of Gabon, west Africa.

Ona, who uses a wheelchair due to childhood polio, has been repeatedly threatened, and arrested and evicted from his home.

"Threats shouldn't prevent you from carrying on your fight," he told Reuters by phone from Gabon. "It could destroy the most beautiful forests in central Africa."

His campaign helped lead to a review of the project, which is currently on hold, the prize's organisers said.

DEATH THREATS

The North America winner was Maria Gunnoe, a former waitress who campaigns against the environmental impact of mountain-top coal-mining in the Appalachian hills of West Virginia.

The method involves blasting the tops of mountains, removing the coal and pushing the rubble into valleys. Critics say it pollutes land, destroys streams and causes flooding.

In an area where coal is the backbone of the economy, Gunnoe has divided the community and received death threats.

"There's a lot of people here who support what I do. But there's others who drive in here every day for their jobs, and given a choice, they would run over me in a heartbeat," she said in a message on her website.

In Europe, the prize went to Olga Speranskaya, a Russian scientist whose Moscow-based campaign group Eco-Accord aims to rid former Soviet republics of old toxic chemicals once used in agriculture or industry.

"They are among the most toxic and dangerous substances and cause birth defects ... and even cancer," she told Reuters.

The other winners, who receive their $150,000 prizes at a ceremony in San Francisco on Monday, are:

* Asia: Rizwana Hasan, from Bangladesh, who has raised public awareness of the dangers of ship-breaking.

* South & Central America: Hugo Jabini and Wanze Eduards, from Suriname, who organised local people to campaign against logging on their land.

* Islands: Yuyun Ismawati, who campaigned for better waste management in Indonesia.
(Editing by Kevin Liffey)