Three Native North Americans who have defended Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife refuge from oil drilling are among this year’s winners of a top environmental award.
The Goldman Environmental Prize, announced Monday, was also presented to a Somali woman Fatima Jibrell who has campaigned against logging old growth trees for charcoal, and a Thai ecologist Pisit Charnshoh working to restore Thailand’s coastal ecosystem, damaged by industrial fishing. They were among eight people from six regions to receive the non-governmental honor. The Goldman Prize, selected by an international jury, singles out what are considered grassroots environmental activists, and awards them $125,000 each.
The North American award will be shared by ethnic Gwich’in leaders Jonathon Solomon, Sarah James and Norma Kassi. Their selection follows the rejection last week by the U.S. Senate of a White House effort to open the Alaskan refuge to drilling.
Other winners are Jadwiga Lopata of Poland, who has used eco-tourism to preserve and promote his country’s traditional family farms; Alexis Massol-Gonzalez who led his community in a successful fight to convert a mining zone into the Puerto Rico’s first community managed forest reserve, and Jean La Rose of Guyana, who overcame harassment to protect Indian lands from mining.
