Six grass-roots environmentalists win $125,000 Goldman Environmental Prize

Vietnam vet fighting Pentagon nerve gas incineration and champion of native forest dwellers terrorized in Liberian civil war among six winners of world's largest prize for grass-roots environmentalists         

[APRIL 24, 2006]  SAN FRANCISCO -- A Vietnam veteran fighting Pentagon plans to incinerate chemical weapons stockpiles, a man who tipped the United Nations to illegal logging in war-torn Liberia and the person behind the creation of the world's largest area of protected tropical rain forest are among the winners of this year's prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.

"These six winners are among the most important people you have not heard of before," said Goldman Prize founder Richard N. Goldman. "All of them have fought, often alone and at great personal risk, to protect the environment in their home countries. Their incredible achievements are an inspiration to all of us."

The $125,000 Goldman Environmental Prize, now in its 17th year, is awarded annually to six grass-roots environmental heroes and is the largest award of its kind in the world. The winners will be awarded the prize at an invitation-only ceremony at 5 tonight (Monday) at the San Francisco Opera House.

This year's winners are:
(Click each person's name to access their individual recipient profile with biography, photos and video.)

North America: Craig E. Williams, 58, Kentucky

Williams convinced the Pentagon to stop plans to incinerate old chemical weapons stockpiled around the United States and has built a nationwide grass-roots coalition to lobby for safe disposal solutions. Williams co-founded the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, which won the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its international campaign to ban landmines. [Related article]

Africa: Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, 36, Liberia

Siakor exposed evidence that former Liberia President Charles Taylor used profits of unchecked, rampant logging to pay the costs of a brutal 14-year war. Such evidence -- collected at great personal risk to Siakor -- led the United Nations Security Council to ban the export of Liberian timber, part of wider trade sanctions that remain in place today.

Asia: Yu Xiaogang, 55, China

Yu spent years creating groundbreaking watershed management programs while researching and documenting the socioeconomic impact of dams on Chinese communities. His reports are considered a primary reason that the central government paid additional restitution to villagers displaced by existing dams and now considers social impact assessments for major dam developments.

South and Central America: Tarcisio Feitosa da Silva, 35, Brazil

Feitosa led efforts to create the world's largest area of protected tropical forest regions in a remote, lawless region in northern Brazil threatened by illegal logging. Despite death threats, Feitosa worked with local organizations to create protected lands for local residents and exposed illegal logging activities to the Brazilian government.

Europe: Olya Melen, 26, Ukraine

Melen, a lawyer, used legal channels to temporarily halt construction of a massive canal that would have cut through the heart of the Danube Delta, one of the world's most valuable wetlands. For her efforts, she was denounced by the notoriously corrupt and lawless pre-Orange Revolution government.

Islands and island nations: Anne Kajir, 32, Papua New Guinea

Kajir uncovered evidence of widespread corruption and complicity in the Papua New Guinea government, which allowed rampant, illegal logging that is destroying the largest remaining intact block of tropical forest in the Asia Pacific region. In 1997, her first year practicing law, Kajir successfully defended a precedent-setting appeal in the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea that forced the logging interests to pay damages to indigenous land owners.

About the Goldman Environmental Prize

The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1990 by San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman. It has been awarded to 113 people from 67 countries.

Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals.

Previous prize winners have been at the center of some of the world's most pressing environmental issues, including seeking justice for victims of environmental disasters at Love Canal and Bhopal, India; leading the fight for dolphin-safe tuna; fighting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and exposing Monsanto's role in introducing rBGH milk-stimulating hormone in the dairy industry.

Since receiving a Goldman Prize, eight winners have been appointed or elected to national office in their countries, including several who became ministers of the environment. The 1991 prize winner for Africa, Wangari Maathai, won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

[Goldman Environmental Prize news release]