This year's prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize has been awarded to six grassroots environmental activists from around the world for their efforts to combat climate change and preserve biodiversity. Established in 1989 by philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman, the prize has, for the first time, seen all recipients be women: Iroro Tanshi from Nigeria, Borim Kim from South Korea, Sarah Finch from the United Kingdom, Theonila Roka Matbob from Papua New Guinea, Alannah Acaq Hurley from the United States, and Yuvelis Morales Blanco from Colombia.

Often referred to as the "Green Nobel," the Goldman Prize selects winners from each of the world's six primary regions, with each recipient receiving $200,000 in prize money. John Goldman, vice president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, stated, "While we continue to fight uphill to protect the environment and implement lifesaving climate policies – in the US and globally – it is clear that true leaders can be found all around us. The 2026 Prize winners are proof positive that courage, hard work, and hope go a long way toward creating meaningful progress."

Morales Blanco, the winner for South and Central America, fought against some of the world's largest oil companies to successfully halt the introduction of commercial fracking in Colombia. The 24-year-old activist grew up in a family of fishermen along the banks of the Magdalena River in the Afro-Colombian community of Puerto Wilches. She began organizing protests after a major oil spill in 2018, which forced the relocation of dozens of local families and killed thousands of animals. Her activism, which made her a target for intimidation and forced her to temporarily relocate, helped stop projects and elevate fracking as a key issue in Colombia's 2022 election.

Two other recipients focused their efforts on combating fossil fuels. Borim, the winner for Asia who founded the Youth 4 Climate Action organization, secured a ruling from South Korea's Constitutional Court that the government's climate policy violated the constitutional rights of future generations, marking the first successful youth-led climate litigation on the continent. Finch, Europe's winner, announced she will use her prize money to continue fighting fossil fuels. Alongside the Weald Action Group, she opposed oil drilling in southeastern England for over a decade, obtaining the "Finch ruling" from the Supreme Court in June 2024, which mandates that authorities must consider the global climate impacts of fossil fuels before granting extraction permits.

Two additional winners fought against the destructive environmental impacts of mining projects. Roka Matbob, the winner for Islands and Island Nations from Papua New Guinea, led a successful campaign that resulted in the world's second-largest mining company, Rio Tinto, agreeing to address environmental and social devastation caused by its Panguna copper mine, closed 35 years ago following an uprising. Acaq Hurley, the North American winner from the Yup'ik nation in the US, successfully collaborated with 15 tribal nations to stop a mega-copper and gold mining project that threatened ecosystems in Alaska's Bristol Bay region, including the world's largest wild salmon runs.

Tanshi, Africa's winner from Nigeria, rediscovered the endangered short-tailed roundleaf bat and has been working to protect its refuge, the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, from human-induced wildfires.

Source: www.aljazeera.com