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April 17, 2012

Alaskan, Kenyan Activists Among 6 Winners of Goldman Environmental Prize 
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Six environmentalists have been named winners of the 23rd Goldman
Environmental Prize.
Alaskan-Inupiat activist Caroline Cannon won for her work to protect
against drilling in the Arctic seas.

Caroline Cannon: "When I met with President Obama a couple years ago, he
told me that he knew what it felt to be treated as a second-class
citizen. He made a promise to work with the Inupiat people, and to
protect our way of life, that gave me hope. Now is a time to hold him to
that promise."

Kenyan activist Ikal Angelei won a Goldman prize for her campaign to
block the construction of one of East Africa's most significant
infrastructure projects, the GIBE-3 dam, that could lead to the region's
Lake Turkana drying up.

Ikal Angelei: "The biggest the challenge was working with a community
who’s having already a lot of problems. Access to food, access to
healthcare, insecurity, lack of government support. It's so hard when
you're talking about environmental rights and resource governance when
we are having people thinking 'Can I get a meal today?' and we will see
what tomorrow brings. So that was the hardest challenge, working in an
area where the community is already in conflict over resources, it was
really hard to bring them together and say 'Listen, we understand what
are the issues but as of now we have to speak as one voice.'"

The other winners were Ma Jun from China, Evgenia Chirikova from Russia,
Edwin Gariguez, of the Philippines and Sofia Gatica from Argentina.

 

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