Congratulations to the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize winners!
The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s foremost award honoring grassroots environmental activists and their extraordinary efforts to protect and enhance the natural world.
This year, we’re pleased to see two Global Greengrants Fund grantees on the list: Maida Bilal and Kimiko Hirata.
Maida Bilal, Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 2018, Maida, along with women from her village, led a 503-day blockade preventing heavy equipment that would be used to build a dam from reaching its’ destination. Their efforts led to the cancellation of permits for two proposed dams on the Kruščica River.
These projects were part of a dam boom in the Balkans, home to some of Europe’s last free-flowing rivers. Dams significantly alter river ways, redirecting the flow of water and leaving riverbeds dry, dramatically changing ways of life for people and animals. The Kruščica River lies within the boundaries of a protected landscape and is the lifeline for the village of Kruščica and the main water source for about 145,000 people in two nearby towns.
In 2019, Global Greengrants supported efforts to prevent the construction of the dams with a $5,000 grant to the Coalition for the Protection of the Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to host a Western Balkan conference in Sarajevo and the implementation of joint regional actions between the many groups in the area working on the issue.
In March 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami ravaged Japan and caused the dramatic meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the island nation’s eastern coast. After the disaster, Japan moved away from nuclear power, transitioning to coal as a main energy source.
Kimiko launched a grassroots campaign against coal, culminating in the cancellation of 13 planned coal plants. By preventing 7,030 MW worth of coal power plants from being built—nearly 40% of Japan’s planned new coal plant capacity—she averted the emission of 42 million tons of CO2 per year, or more than 1.6 billion tons of CO2 over the lifetimes of the proposed coal power plants.
In 2012, Global Greengrants made a $2,000 grant to the Kiko Network, the organization founded by Kimiko, to support research on nuclear policy in Japan as well as that surrounding alternative energy. The money was also used to organize a symposium that addressed domestic energy policy and proposed measures to attain a 30% reduction.
We are proud of the work of all of the 2021 Prize recipients and their outstanding efforts to protect both people and planet.
Photo Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize