Goldman Environmental Prize Winners for 2001 Announced
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Contacts: Dwight Langhum, Langhum Mitchell Communications, 202/546-9170
Goldman Environmental Prize: Beverly Becker: 415/788-9090
CRUSADING JOURNALISTS AMONG THIS YEAR'S GOLDMAN ENVIRONMENTAL PRIZE WINNERS
World's Largest Award for Grassroots Environmentalists
Two American journalists who risked their careers to expose the dangers of rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone), a
Rwandan who fought to save mountain gorillas amidst his country's genocidal wars, and a Bolivian worker who won the
world's first major victory in the struggle over privatizing public water, are winners of the 12th annual Goldman
Environmental Prize, to be awarded on April 23, 2001.
They are among eight environmental heroes from around the globe who will receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental
Prize. The award, given in six geographical categories, includes a prize of $125,000 from the Goldman Environmental
Foundation. (Two of this year's categories have two winners each.)
The total of $750,000 is given annually to grassroots heroes from North America, Africa, South/Central America, Asia,
Europe, and Island Nations. Seventy-one previous Goldman Prize winners have successfully defended the safety and health
of their homelands from destructive government projects and practices, multinational corporations, corrupt leaders,
international financial institutions, and even the destruction of wars. The Goldman Prize allows many to continue their
work and expand public awareness of what are often life-and-death environmental crises.
This year's winners are:
- North America - Jane Akre and Steve Wilson: Two TV journalists who researched the potential health risks of rBGH
(recombinant bovine growth hormone)-the genetically modified hormone injected into U.S. dairy cows to stimulate milk
production. The hormone is among of the first genetically modified products approved by the FDA. It is banned in Europe,
Japan and most other industrialized nations. Their resulting story proved too hot for the local TV network affiliate for
which it was produced and ultimately led to their firing.
- Africa - Eugene Rutagarama: A conservationist who risked his life to save Rwanda's last 355 mountain gorillas. He was
forced to flee Rwanda during the massacres of the 1990s, during which most of his family was killed. As soon as
possible, he returned to rebuild the national park system and protect the gorilla habitat from human encroachment as the
government resettled millions of refugees. While his country was overrun with brutality and murder, he risked his life
to save the silent victims of this genocidal war.
- South America - Oscar Olivera: A Bolivian labor leader who became an advocate for universal rights to affordable,
clean water. In 1999, the Bolivian government reacted to pressure from international financial institutions by selling
the public water system of one of its largest cities to a U.S. corporation. The corporation immediately raised water
rates to the point where many families were paying up to a third of their income for water. Finding this intolerable, he
led a coalition that took to the streets in the tens of thousands to bring the city to a halt for days. After a brutal
government crackdown forced him into hiding, he emerged and continued protests and negotiations that forced the
government to cancel the sale.
- Asia - Yosepha Alomang: An indigenous woman of West Papua (Irian Jaya, Indonesia) who has organized resistance to the
destruction of the world's largest gold mining operation, set amidst at-risk virgin tropic rainforests. She has been
detained, placed in inhumane confinement, and tortured for her efforts. Her ethnic group has declared independence to
gain control over their resources, and their actions have been met with repressive and violent government action.
Regardless of these dangers, she continues to shepherd projects promoting traditional cultures, collective action and
the well being of indigenous people in West Papua.
- Europe -Myrsini Malakou and Giorgos Catsadorakis: Two Greek biologists who led the charge to create a crucial wetlands
conservation area located in remote northwestern Greece, adjacent to the borders of Albania and Macedonia (former
Yugoslavia). Few other areas in Europe of comparable size are as biologically rich and diverse. Post-World War II
development degraded the wetlands and transformed the traditional way of life of the people in the region. The Prize
recipients worked for years researching, organizing, and advocating sustainable farming and economic activities to
restore this precious area. Their hard work paid off last year when Albania, Macedonia, and Greece jointly created the
first trans-boundary protected area in the Balkans, an area better known for conflict than cooperation.
- Island Nations - Bruno Van Peteghem: A New Caledonia (in the South Pacific east of Australia) resident working against
time and mining interests to protect one of the world's coral reefs from destruction. International companies are ready
to dig up and pollute huge portions of the reefs as they introduce new, highly toxic mining practices. Van Peteghem is
leading a campaign to place the reef on the World's Heritage List-the reef's best hope for permanent protection. A
successful island environmental activist since the early 1990s, he has confronted severe intimidation and abuse
including the suspicious burning of his family's home.
"The world is getting smaller, and the need is growing for everyone to take responsibility for keeping our planet
healthy," said Richard N. Goldman, founder of the Goldman Environmental Prize. "The winners this year illustrate how the
environment is affected by wars, international business, economic policies, and the tendency to put short-term gains
ahead of long term solutions. They also illustrate how the courage and commitment of a single visionary individual can
make a difference for generations to come."
The first Goldman Environmental Prizes were awarded in 1990 by Mr. Goldman and his late wife Rhoda H. Goldman.
Mrs.Goldman was a descendant of Levi Strauss, the founder of the worldwide clothing company that bears his name. Mr.
Goldman is Chairman of Goldman Insurance Services in San Francisco.
On April 25, Mr. Goldman will receive the National Geographic Society Chairman's Award in recognition of his "exemplary
contributions to every aspect of conservation and global environmental awareness." The last time the Society presented
this award was 1995 to Lady Bird Johnson and Laurence Rockefeller.
Goldman Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a network of over
20 environmental organizations and individuals representing nearly 50 nations. The Goldman Prize is the world's largest
award for environmental activists. In addition to the cash award, recipients travel to San Francisco and Washington,
D.C. for an awards ceremony and presentation, press conferences, media briefings, and meetings with political, public
policy, financial and environmental leaders.
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Live Webcaset of the Prize ceremony on April 23: This event, including 3-minute speeches by the winners and 5-minute
videos on their work, can be seen live at www.goldmanprize.org on April 23, 5:00 p.m., Pacific Time.
ATTENTION EDITORS: Backgrounders and photos of all winners are available. Broadcast-quality video of the Goldman Prize
winners has been shot in their home countries and is available.
FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE PRIZE AND PREVIOUS WINNERS
www.goldmanprize.org
2001 Goldman Environmental Prize Recipients
Background Information
Eugene Rutagarama, Rwanda
Africa
The human suffering in Rwanda during the 1990s was incalculable. But few outsiders realize that without intervention,
the innocent victims of war might also have included the most endangered of humanity's close relatives - mountain
gorillas.
Mountain gorillas are the world's rarest primates. Only approximately 650 of them survive worldwide, 355 of them in the
tropical forests in the Volcano National Park in the Virunga Mountains straddling three countries: Rwanda, the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. In addition, the tri-national Volcano National Park is surrounded by
rapidly growing villages and farmlands, presenting a constant conservation challenge.
Despite the presence of troops in the park, refugees moving through the mountains, and enormous pressure to resettle
hundreds of thousands of refugees in protected areas, Rutagarama helped ensure that Rwanda's critical gorilla habitat
remained protected.
His commitment, leadership and courage ensured that the fragile mountain gorilla population in the Virungas survived the
wars of the 1990s and current conflicts in the DRC. Indeed, it grew by 11 percent since 1989.
Political and ethnic conflicts have long been part of Rwanda's history. Identified as a Tutsi, Eugene Rutagarama, 45,
has endured a lifetime of persecution from extremists among the country's Hutus. He was forced to flee the country five
times between 1960 and 1991. In 1990 while conducting botanical surveys, Rutagarama was captured and imprisoned by the
Hutu government. In 1991, when rebels attacked the town of Ruhengeri in northern Rwanda and freed the prisoners,
Rutagarama fled with his family to Burundi. Committed to conservation, he taught biology in a secondary school and
helped found the Burundi Nature Club, a local non-governmental organization.
Following the 1994 genocide in which nearly a million people -- including most of Rutagarama's relatives -- were killed,
the country grappled with resettlement and reconciliation. He immediately returned to Rwanda to direct the national
parks program. Although tourism is an important source of income for this poor country, the Rwandan Office of Tourism
and National Parks (ORTPN) had been weakened, and its protected areas were at risk as the government tried to resettle
more than two million people. Rutagarama devised a successful plan for the agency's rehabilitation and won support from
all critical partners. He was also willing to repeatedly risk his life by traveling in rebel-held territory in the DNC
to deliver funds and equipment to park rangers who had not been paid in more than five years.
In 1997, Rutagarama joined the International Gorilla Conservation Program, a joint program of the African Wildlife
Foundation, Flora and Fauna International, and World Wide Fund for Nature. He oversees gorilla conservation activities
in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is focusing on rebuilding ecotourism, monitoring the mountain
gorillas and ecosystems, building relationships with the communities near the parks, and strengthening ORTPN. He has
successfully lobbied high levels of the three governments to make sure that environmental issues are not forgotten as
leaders struggle to rebuild the region.
Says Rutagarama, "After a humanitarian disaster as horrific as genocide, the common struggle to preserve something of
shared value, like the natural environment, can form an ideal for people to believe in. The opportunity and obligation
to protect something precious can assist the reconstruction of a devastated society."
Yosepha Alomang, West Papua, Indonesia
Asia
For more than 20 years, Yosepha Alomang, a spokesperson and community organizer for the Amungme and other indigenous
peoples of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, has worked to overcome the environmental, economic and cultural devastation of decades
of mining on the traditions and lands of her people.
The Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, the western half of New Guinea known commonly as West Papua, is Asia's last
wilderness and is one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet. The territory, the size of California, is
home to the largest expanse of contiguous tropical rainforest outside of the Amazon and some of the most at-risk virgin
tropical rainforest on Earth. It also contains the world's largest gold and copper mine, known as the Grasberg mine,
located in the island's mountains.
For 30,000 years, the indigenous peoples of West Papua, including the Amungme, have lived a sustainable existence with
the land, yet only three-plus decades of mining destroyed the rainforest, polluted rivers, displaced communities and
disrupted cultures. In the 1960s, when a U.S. mining company entered the area, mining began without the permission of
locals, many of whom were dispossessed of their lands and forcibly resettled.
Under the protection of the Indonesian government, the mining operation, owned by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc., of New Orleans, Louisiana, has bulldozed 400 feet from the top of a mountain sacred to the Amungme. The
government permits Freeport to dump approximately 200,000 tons of tailings into local rivers every day, spreading
pollutants over vast areas of the forest. Meanwhile, Indonesian soldiers have repeatedly, often brutally, suppressed the
community's peaceful protests against the mine.
The indigenous people opposing the mine have been detained, tortured, kidnapped, raped and murdered. In 1994, Alomang
was tortured by Indonesian soldiers for allegedly giving food to Papuan fighters resisting Indonesian sovereignty and
Freeport's seizure of their lands. She was locked in a room for a week, knee-deep with water and human waste, without
food or drink. Altogether she was held, tortured and interrogated for six weeks. These human rights abuses came to light
a year later when the Catholic Church and other non-governmental organizations published a report detailing the
disturbing abuses experienced by Alomang and many others.
As Alomang and other leaders continued to speak out about the harmful impacts of the mine, the world began to take
notice. In 1996, Alomang was the spokesperson for the Amungme in a meeting, the first of its kind, between Freeport CEO
James "Jim Bob" Moffett and local communities. Moffett pledged to donate one percent of the company's net profits to
local development projects; however, the company would not change its ruinous environmental practices, nor return
control of the lands to the people. Regardless of the community's explicit rejection of this offer, the company
disbursed millions of dollars into seven artificial "tribal" organizations of Freeport's creation. Within the first two
years of this fund, the injection of huge amounts of money into an illegitimate and unaccountable infrastructure led to
the deaths of 18 people in fighting amongst community members.
In the face of government indifference to this crisis, the Amungme are seeking independence in order to regain control
of their lands and ensure their survival as a community. Their demands include compensation for confiscated lands,
independent environmental and human rights assessments, and accountability for those who have violated their human
rights.
As a woman in a traditional society, Alomang has focused on working within her community, as other Amungme leaders
brought national and international attention to their plight. She has shared her strength with all of the indigenous
people of West Papua and led peaceful demonstrations in the mining town of Timika. She recently created HAMAK (Human
Rights Against Violence), a women's group dedicated to projects related to human rights, environmentalism, traditional
culture and collective action.
Last May, a rock pile at the mine collapsed into a lake sacred to the Amungme, killing four and flooding their villages
with contaminated water. This incident, coupled with ongoing community activism, has prompted Indonesia's current
government to begin examining Freeport's practices.
Oscar Olivera, Bolivia
Central/South America
Oscar Olivera was a key leader in a community-wide coalition to return the public water system in his hometown of
Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city, to the control of the people and away from management by private international
corporations.
While fresh water is less than .5 percent of the world's total water supply, its use worldwide will likely double in the
next 20 years. According to the International Water Management Institute, an estimated $75 billion in investment will be
needed to keep pace with demand. In the past decade, the privatization of water has been promoted as a solution to this
problem, creating a new dimension to the global water crisis.
By the mid-1990s, the Bolivian government was under heavy pressure to privatize water systems as part of the World
Bank's "structural adjustment policies." The Bank declared its support of full-cost water pricing and took the position
that water service should pay for itself without subsidies. Under this policy, the Bolivian government granted a 40-year
concession to run Cochabamba's troubled and debt-ridden public water system to Aguas del Tunari, 55 percent of which was
owned by International Water Ltd, an affiliate of U.S.-based Bechtel Enterprise Holdings; Abengoa of Spain owned 25
percent, and the remainder was in the hands of Bolivians, some closely tied to the government.
The privatized water company immediately raised prices. While it claimed increases were no more than 35 percent, many
customers were paying as much as 200 to 300 percent more. With the minimum wage less than $65 a month, many customers
had water bills of $20 or more. In addition, access to water, whether from community wells or rainwater, required the
purchase of permits, leaving the poorest in rural and urban areas with threatened water supplies.
The people of Cochabamba reacted. Oscar Olivera, 46, executive secretary of the Cochabamba Federation of Factory Workers
and spokesperson for the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life, known as La Coordinadora, led demands for the water
system to be returned to public control and for substantive changes in the legislation that allowed the privatization.
Protests shut down the city for days. Bolivian President Hugo Banzer declared martial law; the army killed one and
injured hundreds. Soldiers stormed into houses and arrested several Coalition leaders. Olivera was forced into hiding,
but shortly after emerged to lead negotiations with the government, insisting on the nullification of the contract with
Aguas del Tunari and changes in water legislation to protect historic uses and practices.
In April 2000, after an emergency session of the Bolivian Congress, the government announced it was canceling the
privatization contract and amending the law that allowed this to happen. La Coordinadora won its demands. Water was
deprivatized and returned to local control, and the rules were changed to incorporate and respect the demands of rural
populations. Even more significant, La Coordinadora achieved the first major victory worldwide against the trend toward
privatizing water. Olivera continues to head La Coordinadora's work to develop a water
system that relies neither on corrupt government management nor on transnational corporations.
Says Olivera, "After 15 years of structural adjustment, when we thought that the most important human values had been
wrested from us, when we thought we were incapable of overcoming fear, of having the ability to organize and unite, when
we no longer believed we could make our voices heard, then our humble, simple, and hard-working people -- men, women,
children and the elderly -- demonstrated to the country and to the world that all this is still possible."
Myrsini Malakou and Giorgos Catsadorakis, Greece
Europe
Thanks to the work of biologists Myrsini Malakou and Giorgos Catsadorakis, the Préspa wetlands area, one of the most
biologically diverse regions in Europe, is on the road to restoration and is now protected as the first transboundary
park in the Balkans.
While wetlands cover six percent of the Earth's land and play a major role in regulating the freshwater supply, they are
seriously threatened by industrial and agricultural activities. The wetlands of Préspa, in northwestern Greece, along
the borders of Albania and Macedonia, are some of the most biologically rich and diverse in Europe. In this region, 260
species of birds migrate, winter and breed, including the world's largest colony of the rare Dalmatian pelican. Otters,
wolves and bears also inhabit the area, along with 1,500 plant species and 17 species of fish, eight of which are found
nowhere else in the world.
In the mid-1960s, government projects introduced large irrigation systems, which were gradually followed by use of
commercial fertilizers and mechanized farming, slowly undermining the intricate wetlands ecology. In the early 1980s,
the traditional fishing and pastoral economy of the Préspa region was replaced by intensive bean cultivation, causing
further degradation of the wetlands. Based on years of research on the biology and ecology of the region, Malakou and
Catsadorakis worked with local communities to seek economic alternatives that would respect, not disrupt, the regional
ecosystem.
Malakou, 40, and Catsadorakis, 42, emphasized the local community's experience, traditions and economic objectives as
they designed conservation initiatives. They helped some farmers convert to organic cultivation of beans and
reintroduced traditional practices such as the use of water buffaloes. As leading advocates for the area's protection,
they founded the community-based organization Préspa Center for Man and Nature and have been key scientific advisors for
the Society for the Protection of Préspa. Through these organizations, they succeeded in curbing development projects
that would further degrade the wetlands, created environmental education programs, and advocated for the expansion of
ecotourism. As a direct result of their efforts, major destructive practices were halted, and the wetlands are returning
to health. The carp population is increasing, and the Dalmatian pelican colony has increased five-fold to become the
largest concentration in the world of this vulnerable species.
With the foundation of successful programs and scientific research, the two called for the creation of a conservation
zone to protect the entire Préspa region, which crosses the borders of three countries. Their singular groundbreaking
achievement came on February 2, 2000, when the prime ministers of Albania, Macedonia and Greece signed an agreement
establishing Préspa Park, the first transboundary protected area in the Balkans. The agreement allows community
activities to continue in buffer zones and calls for degraded areas to be restored. In addition, the park promotes
cooperation in a region associated with conflict. At the signing ceremony, the three leaders declared that the Préspa
Park would be "a model of its kind, as well as an additional reference to the peaceful collaboration among our
countries."
Malakou and Catsadorakis are currently contributing to the preparation of a management plan for the sustainable
development of the new park. Catsadorakis says, "There is a huge single challenge to the modern world: Humans must
define what prosperity means on a healthy planet capable of sustaining all equally. The effort to find this optimal
modus vivendi has no borders, and natural entities must be used to inspire, enrich, empower and unite peoples."
Bruno Van Peteghem, Noumea, New Caledonia
Island Nations
Bruno Van Peteghem, 46, of Noumea, New Caledonia, is leading a regional and international advocacy campaign to save one
of the world's largest coral reefs from being mined by the nickel ore industry. Van Peteghem's campaign is crucial
because this South Pacific territory of France has no effective system of environmental protection.
New Caledonia's coral reef is largely intact and healthy thanks to its physical isolation and relatively small human
population. Its unique geography protects it from deadly bleaching caused by global warming. Today, the reef is
seriously endangered by new developments in the island's largest industry, nickel mining, which provides more than 20
percent of the world's nickel.
The International Nickel Company of Canada (INCO) is setting up operations on the island with a new sulfuric acid
leaching process that produces millions of tons of toxic waste including PCBs, heavy metals and organic compounds. INCO,
which currently has the
support of New Caledonia's ruling political party, the RPCR (Rassemblement Pour le Caledonie dans la Republique), plans
to dig up large portions of the fossilized coral for calcium carbonate to neutralize the acidic tailings. As INCO moves
forward with these plans, numerous other companies are also ready to proceed with this same process. No laws exist in
New Caledonia to prevent this environmental catastrophe.
Van Peteghem has been an environmental campaigner in New Caledonia since the early 1990s. He and two organizations he
co-founded, the New Caledonian Greens (Les Verts Pacifique) and Living Coral (Corail Vivant), are leading a coalition of
environmental organizations and indigenous communities to place New Caledonia's coral reef on the UNESCO World Heritage
List. Van Peteghem's domestic and international campaign to place the reef on the World Heritage List is the coral's
best hope for permanent protection. However, serious opposition to such protection comes from the RPCR, a dominant,
pro-mining force on the island.
As part of its World Heritage campaign, Corail Vivant is seeking to gain membership in the International Coral Reefs
Initiative. Key backing in New Caledonia for the campaign has come recently from the leadership of FLNKS, the political
party representing the island's indigenous Melanesian people. This is particularly important as Van Peteghem and his
organizations work to build public support for the reef campaign, which is critical to convincing the RPCR to endorse
the World Heritage nomination.
According to Van Peteghem, "Man and nature are inseparable. If we ignore this, we perish. Survival of the coral hinges
on human activities everywhere -- on land, in the sea and in the atmosphere. We still have time."
Jane Akre and Steve Wilson, Clearwater, Florida, United States
North America
In late 1996, journalists Jane Akre and Steve Wilson began investigating rBGH, the genetically modified growth hormone
American dairies have been injecting into their cows. As investigative reporters for the Fox Television affiliate in
Tampa, Florida, they discovered that while the hormone had been banned in Canada, Europe and most other countries,
millions of Americans were unknowingly drinking milk from rBGH-treated cows. The duo documented how the hormone, which
can harm cows, was approved by the government as a veterinary drug without adequately testing its effects on children
and adults who drink rBGH milk. They also uncovered studies raising the possibility of its link to human breast,
prostate and colon cancer.
The Fox affiliate widely promoted the investigative reports. But just before the broadcast, the station abruptly pulled
the plug after Monsanto, the hormone manufacturer, threatened Fox News chief Roger Ailes, promising "dire consequences"
if the reporters were allowed to broadcast their findings. A Fox lawyer told the journalists, "This story isn't worth a
couple hundred thousand dollars to go up against Monsanto." When the reporters implored Fox 's station manager to
proceed with the broadcast because this was news that consumers had a right to know, he refused.
For eight months, Fox lawyers pressured the reporters to air a version of the story that would avoid conflict with
Monsanto. The reporters rewrote the story more than 80 times, but no version was ever acceptable. Instead the pair was
repeatedly threatened with dismissal, twice offered six-figure sums to drop their ethical objections and keep quiet, and
finally suspended, locked out of their offices, and fired just before Christmas 1997.
In April 1998, Akre and Wilson filed a lawsuit charging Fox with violating Florida's Whistleblower Law, which makes it
illegal to take any retaliatory action against a worker who threatens to expose employer misconduct. Fox Televison,
owned by Rupert Murdoch, reportedly spent more than $3 million to defend itself after failing three times to have the
case dismissed without a trial. After five weeks of testimony last summer, the jury unanimously ruled that the story Fox
had pressured its reporters to broadcast was indeed "a false, distorted or slanted news report." They awarded $425,000
to Akre because they concluded she was fired for no other reason than threatening to reveal Fox's misconduct. The
couple, who sold their home and drained their savings to pay legal bills, have not received payment because Fox is
appealing the decision. Meanwhile, since the lawsuit, neither has been able to work full-time in TV news.
Although still struggling to preserve their jury award in the long and expensive appeals process, they have formed their
own independent news and documentary production company. They vow to continue telling important stories, including
others that expose environmental and health issues, which are increasingly ignored by the mainstream media.
According to Akre, "As a mother and a journalist, I know we all have the right to information to help us make important
decisions about what we pour on our children's cereal each morning. All journalists have a duty to shed light on
important issues in the public interest, even when that information runs counter to governments and industry who would
rather operate in their own self interest."
Adds Wilson, "No issue is ever addressed and nothing ever changes for the better until the facts are known. Jane and I
merely did our best to do what good journalists have always tried to do: uncover the facts and report them without fear
or favor to special interests. But, sadly, the truth is that in more and more newsrooms these days, reporters are
getting the message that putting the public interest first is not always the fastest way to career advancement."
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