Activists honored for fighting industry, defending wildlife

The common denominator of all six winners of this year's Goldman Prize, often referred to as the "Green Nobel," is their effectiveness in fighting big fights to protect the environment despite their relative anonymity. The winners, who were chosen from the world's major geographical regions, include activists from Canada, Zambia, Mongolia and Peru. Each will receive $125,000. Winner Willie Corduff of Rossport, Ireland, along with fellow local residents, forced Shell Oil to halt construction on an illegally-approved pipeline through their land. Corduff prevented the pipeline from being constructed on grounds that the Irish government violated federal environmental and development laws requiring local participation and review. The pipeline would have jeopardized the delicate bog ecosystem, threatening both the safety of the local community and the farmers' way of life, says the Goldman Prize. Both Hammerskjoeld Simwinga of Zambia and Orri Vigfússon of Iceland received Goldman prizes based on their efforts to preserve native wildlife populations. Simwinga created a sustainable community development program that restored wildlife and transformed his poverty-stricken region of the North Luangwa Valley, where illegal wildlife poaching had decimated elephant populations. The North Luangwa Wildlife Conservation and Community Development Program, which Simwinga founded, works to preserve the North Luangwa National Park's biodiversity while improving village life in the region through micro-lending, education, rural health programs and women's empowerment. Vigfússon helped bring an end to destructive commercial fishing in the North Atlantic by brokering a huge international fishing rights buyout, in which his organization bought the fishing rights from commercial interests on both sides of the Atlantic. The Iceland-based North Atlantic Salmon Fund, Vigfússon's organization, has raised over $35 million to purchase the fishing rights from commercial fishers across the North Atlantic since 1989, leading to a 75 percent drop in Atlantic commercial open-sea fishing over the past 15 years. Sophia Rabliauskas of Canada, Tsetsegee Munkhbayar of Mongolia, and Julio Cusurichi Palacios of Peru all received Goldman prizes for their fights against extractive industries. Rabliauskas worked on behalf of the Poplar River First Nation to secure interim protection for a portion of the boreal forest of Manitoba threatened by massive planned logging operations and hydro-power projects. Munkhbayar worked with the Mongolian government and grassroots organizations to end destructive mining operations along Mongolia's waterways. The unregulated gold mining along Mongolia's limited rivers and tributaries was particularly harmful due to outdated technology and lack of law enforcement. Julio Cusurichi Palacios worked to preserve the Peruvian Amazon rain forest, and the way of life of indigenous groups who live there, by limiting the illegal logging, driven by demand for old-growth mahogany, which has led to violent clashes between indigenous groups and loggers. Serving as an adviser with Federation of Natives of the Madre de Dios River and its Tributaries, Palacios has withstood death threats and false public attacks on his character in order to combat illegal logging and mining entities. "It is my responsibility to defend the rights of indigenous peoples, especially those in voluntary isolation who have no voice, and are the most vulnerable people on the planet. I need to inform the politicians who are making decisions that affect the indigenous peoples, nationally and internationally, and propose viable alternatives," said Palacios. The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1990 by San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman. It has been awarded to 119 people from 70 countries.