A young woman from inner city Baltimore; a Cambodian anti-logging activist; a subsistence farmer in Peru’s northern highlands; a grassroots Indigenous organizer in Tanzania; a Slovakian public interest lawyer; and a conservationist advocating for the endangered leatherback sea turtle in Puerto Rico.
These are the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize winners—honored as heroes for their work protecting and enhancing the natural environment, often at great personal risk.
Established in 1989 by the late San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman and his wife, Rhoda, the prize is awarded annually; this year’s ceremony will be live-streamed here starting at 5:30pm PDT Monday.
Among the 2016 recipients is 20-year-old environmental justice warrior Destiny Watford, who inspired residents of her heavily industrialized Baltimore neighborhood to defeat plans to build the nation’s largest incinerator less than a mile away from two public schools.
Now a college student at Towson University, Watford was just a senior in high school when she learned about the proposed plant, which would have burned 4,000 tons of trash—brought in from outside the city—every day. Organizing with the student-led group Free Your Voice, Watford and fellow students hit the streets, canvassing neighborhoods, organizing protests, and circulating petitions.
According to the Goldman committee:
A huge breakthrough moment came when Watford and Free Your Voice students discovered that Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS), along with other city government agencies and local nonprofits, had signed an agreement to purchase energy from the incinerator. In May 2014, Watford and her fellow students attended a school board meeting to urge them to divest from the project. Destiny gave a compelling presentation, students showcased art and music performances, and parents joined in with testimonies of support. They brought board members to tour Curtis Bay and the proposed incinerator site.
In February 2015, in response to concerns from students and their families, the BCPS board voted to terminate its contract with Energy Answers, the incinerator’s developer. By the fall of that year, all 22 customers canceled their contracts, leaving the incinerator with no market for its product. The victory marked a moment of rebirth for Curtis Bay residents who finally felt that their voices were heard and that their health and lives mattered.
Public interest lawyer and mother of two, Zuzana Caputova, of Slovakia, was also recognized for her work fighting a waste dump, this one in Pezinok, the vineyard town in western Slovakia where she was born and raised.
Caputova’s organizing, which the Goldman committee describes as “the largest mobilization of citizens since the 1989 Velvet Revolution,” successfully galvanized peaceful protests and increased civic engagement, “inspiring citizens in the country to stand up for their rights to a clean and safe environment.” In 2013, the Slovakian Supreme Court withdrew permission for a new dumpsite to begin operating in Pezinok, and ordered a decrepit dumpsite to shut down.
Also receiving the prize this year is Leng Ouch, 42, who went undercover in Cambodia to gather evidence of illegal logging activities, posing as a laborer, timber dealer, driver, tourist, and even as a cook. The resulting footage, which he publicly released, revealed the illegal logging practices of the country’s biggest timber magnate, and exposed criminal collusion between timber companies and government officials at all levels of power.
As the Goldman committee points out, “Ouch’s outspoken criticism of the government put him at enormous risk, in a country where environmental activism is dangerous—sometimes even deadly. Chut Wutty, an environmental activist and Ouch’s former colleague, was brutally murdered in 2012; last November, a park ranger and police officer were gunned down while patrolling forests for illegal logging and poaching. Ouch has had to go into hiding at various times, and his family has been intimidated by military police.”