Environmental Champions: Meet winners of the 2024 Goldman Prize

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, which honours one grassroots activist from each of the six inhabited continents.

The 2023 prize winners are Alok Shukla from India, Andrea Vidaurre from the U.S., Marcel Gomes from Brazil, Murrawah Maroochy Johnson from Australia, Teresa Vicente from Spain, and Nonhle Mbuthuma and Sinegugu Zukulu from South Africa.

Seven grassroots environmental activists were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize on April 29. Known as the “Green Nobel Prize,” the Goldman Prize honours activists from the six continental regions.

This year’s winners include two Indigenous activists who stopped destructive seismic testing for oil and gas off the Eastern Cape in Africa, an activist who protected a forest in India from coal mining, an organizer who changed California’s transportation regulations, a journalist who exposed links between beef and deforestation in Brazil, an activist who blocked development of a coal mine in Australia, a professor of philosophy of law who led a campaign that resulted in legal rights to an ecosystem in Spain.

“There is no shortage of those who are doing the hard work, selflessly. These seven leaders refused to be complacent amidst adversity, or to be cowed by powerful corporations and governments,” John Goldman, president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, said in a statement. “Alone, their achievements across the world are impressive. Together, they are a collective force—and a growing global movement—that is breathtaking and full of hope.”

The winners will be honoured in a ceremony in San Francisco on April 29, at 5:30 p.m. PDT, hosted by Outdoor Afro founder Rue Mapp, with musical guest Jazz Mafia, and will be livestreamed on the Goldman Prize’s YouTube channel. A second ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C., on May 1, hosted by science educator Danni Washington.

Here are the winners of the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize:

Nonhle Mbuthuma, and Sinegugu Zukulu, South Africa

Nonhle Mbuthuma, 46, and Sinegugu Zukulu, 54, both Indigenous activists from South Africa’s Wild Coast region, have been awarded the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize for Africa. In September 2022, they successfully stopped destructive seismic testing for oil and gas off the Eastern Cape, protecting the area’s rich marine biodiversity, including migratory whales, dolphins and other wildlife.

Mbuthuma, the co-founder and spokesperson for the Amadiba Crisis Committee, and Zukulu, a program manager for Sustaining the Wild Coast, quickly mobilized their community when they learned about Shell’s imminent seismic testing plans in November 2021. They organized meetings, collected affidavits from community members, and emphasized the importance of the ocean to the Mpondo people’s spiritual beliefs and cultural heritage.

The activists organized a coastal “community walk,” released videos and media statements and submitted 400 pages of affidavits to the court. In December 2021, the High Court ruled in their favor, mandating an immediate cessation of Shell’s seismic survey operations. Mbuthuma and Zukulu then partnered with various organizations to challenge the environmental approval granted to Shell by the government.

On Sept. 1, 2022, the High Court ruled that Shell’s permission to conduct seismic surveys had been granted unlawfully, and the permit was rescinded. The court found that Shell’s consultations were inadequate and failed to consider the potential harm to local livelihoods, cultural and spiritual rights and the contribution of gas and oil exploitation to climate change. Mbuthuma and Zukulu’s victory brought legal recognition of the rights of South African Indigenous communities to protect their environments.

Alok Shukla, India

Alok Shukla, a 43-year-old environmental activist from Chhattisgarh, India, led a successful campaign to protect the 657-square-mile Hasdeo Aranya forests, known as the “lungs of Chhattisgarh,” from coal mining. The forests are home to diverse wildlife and provide crucial resources for nearly 15,000 Indigenous Adivasi people.

Shukla, a founding member of the Save Hasdeo Aranya Resistance Committee, organized local communities to resist the destruction of their ecosystems. He advised communities on legal strategies, lobbied village councils to designate the area as an elephant reserve and led a 166-mile protest march to the state capital.

Through social media campaigns, press conferences and petitions, Shukla garnered widespread support for the cause. He also organized sit-ins and tree-hugging protests against the felling of trees cleared for the proposed mines. Despite opposition from a pro-development national government that is hostile to environmental activists, Shukla’s efforts led the state legislature to adopt a resolution against mining in the Hasdeo Aranya region in July 2022.

As a result of Shukla’s community organizing and sustained resistance tactics, the state government cancelled all 21 proposed coal blocks, preserving 445,000 acres of biodiverse forests from destruction by powerful corporations. The success of the Hasdeo movement has made it a model for environmental justice in India and generated significant national and regional solidarity.

Andrea Vidaurre, U.S.

Andrea Vidaurre, a 29-year-old community organizer from California’s Inland Empire, has been named the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America. Vidaurre’s grassroots leadership persuaded the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to adopt two historic transportation regulations in the spring of 2023: the In-Use Locomotive Regulation and the California Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation. These regulations aim to significantly limit emissions from trucks and trains, with a goal of achieving 100% zero-emission freight truck sales by 2036.

Vidaurre, the co-founder and policy coordinator of the People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, worked tirelessly to advocate for stronger emissions regulations. She participated in technical workshops, submitted public comments and organized “toxic tours” for CARB members and state legislators to witness the impact of the freight industry on frontline communities in the Inland Empire, adjacent to the state’s southern coast, which has been dubbed a “diesel death zone” due to its poor air quality and elevated rates of respiratory illnesses.

Through her efforts, Vidaurre mobilized warehouse and trucking labour unions to join a statewide coalition of environmental justice organizations and communities calling for emissions reductions. Her advocacy led to the adoption of the Advanced Clean Trucks rule in 2020, which set a timeline for the sale of zero-emission trucks in California and was subsequently adopted by several other states.

Vidaurre continued to push for stronger regulations, culminating in the unanimous adoption of the Advanced Clean Fleets rule and the In-Use Locomotive rule by CARB in April 2023. These groundbreaking regulations are expected to prevent thousands of premature deaths from respiratory illness over the next three decades and serve as a model for other states to adopt similar standards, potentially leading to a significant nationwide impact on air quality and public health.

Marcel Gomes, Brazil

Marcel Gomes, a 45-year-old investigative journalist from São Paulo, Brazil, coordinated an international campaign that exposed the links between beef from JBS, the world’s largest meatpacking company, and illegal deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest, Cerrado savanna, and Pantanal wetlands.

As the executive secretary at Repórter Brasil, Gomes and his team traced beef products from European supermarkets back to their origins in Brazil, identifying farms that had been sanctioned for deforestation. They worked with rural workers to corroborate the data and shared the locations with satellite mapping experts to measure deforestation near each farm.

With the evidence gathered, Gomes contacted the implicated slaughterhouses and suppliers, while partner NGO Mighty Earth communicated with the supermarkets. In December 2021, six major European supermarket chains, representing more than $30 billion in retail sales, announced they would stop selling JBS beef products upon publication of Gomes’ investigation.

Since the report’s release, there has been increased pressure for further action. In 2022, German retail company METRO Germany dropped all JBS meat products, and a separate investigation led by Gomes prompted JBS to admit purchasing nearly 9,000 cattle raised on illegally deforested lands between 2018 and 2022.

Gomes’ combination of investigative journalism and grassroots outreach has exposed environmental crimes and prompted changes in the beef industry, highlighting the role of media in holding corporations accountable for their impact on ecosystems.

Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, Australia

Murrawah Maroochy Johnson, a 29-year-old Wirdi woman from the Birri Gubba Nation in Australia, successfully blocked the development of the Waratah coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin. The mine would have destroyed the nearly 20,000-acre Bimblebox Nature Refuge and added 1.58 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere over its lifetime.

Johnson, the co-director of the NGO Youth Verdict, partnered with the Environmental Defenders Office to challenge the project’s mining application in the Queensland courts. They argued that burning coal from the Waratah mine would worsen climate change and impinge on the human and cultural rights of First Nations people across Queensland.

The court agreed to hear testimony from First Nations witnesses, allowing them to share stories, songs and dances that demonstrated the connection between their environment and cultural knowledge. Witnesses described the impacts of climate change on their traditional territories and the destruction of their cultural heritage.

In November 2022, the court recommended that the mining lease and environmental authority applications be refused, citing the mine’s contributions to climate change and its impact on the human and cultural rights of First Nations peoples.

Johnson’s case, which overcame a 2023 appeal, set a precedent that enables other First Nations people to challenge coal projects by linking climate change to human and Indigenous rights. By preventing further intrusion into the Galilee Basin, Johnson’s efforts stopped 1.5 billion tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere.

Teresa Vicente, Spain

Teresa Vicente, a 61-year-old professor of philosophy of law at the University of Murcia, Spain, led a historic, grassroots campaign that resulted in the passage of a new law in September 2022, granting unique legal rights to the Mar Menor ecosystem, Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon.

The once-pristine waters of the Mar Menor had become severely polluted due to mining, urban development, tourism infrastructure and intensive agriculture. In 2019, following a mass fish die-off, Vicente launched a campaign to grant the lagoon legal personhood. She wrote a draft bill and, together with colleagues, submitted a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) to Parliament, which required collecting 500,000 handwritten signatures despite COVID-19 lockdowns.

Vicente worked with thousands of volunteers across Spain, participating in demonstrations, lobbying government representatives, and giving media interviews. In August 2021, she joined 70,000 people in a symbolic “hug” around the Mar Menor. By November 2021, the campaign had collected 639,826 signatures, and in September 2022, the senate passed the bill into law.

The law grants the Mar Menor and its basin the right to conservation, protection against harmful activities and remediation of environmental damage. It also establishes three legislative bodies to oversee enforcement. Vicente’s unique legal strategy set a precedent for democratizing environmental protection and expanding the role of civil society in environmental campaigns, making the Mar Menor the first ecosystem in Europe to enjoy such legal rights.

This article was republished from Mongabay. The original report is available here.