Congratulations to the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prizewinners for their truly visionary grassroots environmental leadership!
We are especially thrilled to acknowledge Edward Loure and Máxima Acuna, members of grassroots groups Global Greengrants has supported in the past. We honor them and all of the 2016 Prizewinners for their brave dedication to protecting vulnerable people and ecosystems.
Edward Loure (Tanzania)
Edward works with our East Africa Grants Advisor Makko Sinandei at the Ujamaa Community Resources Team to help secure land and resource rights for pastoralist and hunter-gatherer communities, many of which are being squeezed out by so-called “protected” areas.
In recent decades, the Tanzanian government has set aside huge swathes of pastoral land for hunting and game reserves, which prohibit any pastoralists from using the land for water or grazing. We wrote about one Maasai land grab in 2014.
Edward, Makko, and Maasai leaders have worked to combat these land grabs and to secure indigenous people’s land rights to tens of thousands of kilometers. Ujamaa has helped set up legally recognized, communally managed pastoralist corridors in Tanzania in which the Maasai manage grazing and wildlife encounters sustainably and with less conflict. The group has used grants from Global Greengrants to train community leaders to advocate and protect against land grabs.
Máxima Acuña (Peru)
Máxima Acuña has faced down intimidation, violence, and legal threats during her struggle to hang onto 67 acres of land that could turn into an open-pit gold mine, if Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corporation has its way. The company wants to expand the nearly $5 billion Conga Mine project, which would wipe out alpine lakes, grasslands, and Máxima’s property.
Máxima told New Internationalist in 2012:
“I may be poor. I may be illiterate, but I know that our mountain lakes are our real treasure. From them, I can get fresh and clean water for my children, for my husband and for my animals. Yet, are we expected to sacrifice our water and our land so that the Yanacocha people can take gold back to their country? Are we supposed to sit quietly and just let them poison our land and water?”
Her brave, vocal opposition to the Conga Mine has made her a beacon of strength for campesino communities throughout South America and mine-impacted farmers worldwide.
On April 18, Earthworks reported a major win in Máxima’s struggle: Newmont has withdrawn the Conga Mine from the list of reserves in its annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, citing social and political opposition to the project.
Global Greengrants has supported the struggle against the Conga and Yanacocha projects in a few ways. Grantee groups in Cajamarca have used grants to travel to Washington to speak to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. In Bambamarca, grantee groups have used grants to hold peaceful protests and vigils around the lakes that Newmont wants to “move into a reservoir” for the Conga project. And local leaders have used Greengrants to travel to Lima to present their case to Congress.
In the last two decades, 60 Global Greengrants grantees and advisors have been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for their outstanding activism on behalf of people and our planet.
Their work is the flame that keeps the grassroots environmental movement ignited. We honor their passion and thank them for inspiring us every day with their commitment and achievements.
Click here to learn about all six of the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prizewinners.