WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- An annual prize from a U.S. philanthropist is helping to build wider recognition of the efforts of environmentalists from developing nations, both within and beyond their native countries.
The Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded last week to individuals from locales as far-flung as Kazakhstan in Asia and the Congo in Africa.
The prize was founded in 1990 by insurance tycoon Richard Goldman, who awards $125,000 in cash each year to recipients representing each of six different parts of the globe.
Those honored in 2005 are:
--Isidro Baldenegro Lopez, 38, a farmer from Mexico who has defended old forests in the Sierra Madre mountains from unregulated logging;
--Corneille E.N. Ewango, 41, a botanist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who continued environmental protection efforts in rainforests and elsewhere even as a civil war raged in his country;
--Kaisha Atakhanova, 47, a biologist from Kazakhstan who led a campaign to prevent nuclear waste from being commercially imported into her country;
--Jose Andres Tamayo Cortez, 47, of Honduras, a Catholic priest who has joined farmers to defend their land against uncontrolled commercial logging;
--Stephanie Roth, 34, of Romania, who has led a campaign to stop construction of Europe's largest open-cast gold mine, which is slated to be built in Romania; and,
--Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, 58, an agronomist from Haiti who has been teaching sustainable agriculture and anti-erosion techniques in the country since 1973.
In recognizing the contribution the six award-winners -- representing North America, Africa, Asia, South and Central America, Europe, and island nations -- have made to environmental protection and development of emerging markets, Goldman noted the award increases public awareness of what grass-roots activism can do, even in countries whose populations sometimes struggle to meet basic human needs.
Foremost, Goldman said at the award ceremony -- which took place in Washington at the National Geographic Society on April 20 -- the prize makes "the world aware of what the efforts of one individual can accomplish."
He added honoring the activists will "influence world leadership, especially in the recipients' home countries, to act positively and promptly to save our planet from further destruction."
Recipients of this year's Goldman Prize may not become as famous as Wangari Muta Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist who spurred a tree-planting initiative in Africa, known as the Green Belt Movement, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts. Nevertheless, the winners have increased awareness of their advocacy issues in their home countries.
For example, Atakhanova ultimately helped to overturn the Kazakh government's plan in 2001 to import nuclear waste. At the time, the country already held 237 millions tons at the Soviet nuclear testing site at Semipalatinsk. The government had planned to use the $40 billion in income that importing additional waste would produce to pay for cleaning up the initial contamination, much to the dismay of thousands of people across Kazakhstan. That plan was voted down in parliament in 2003.
Beyond the direct impact of her efforts, awarding the prize to Atakhanova "comes out not only as a praise for her personal contribution to preserving an ecological balance in Kazakhstan, but also as recognition by the international community of an ever growing civil society in Kazakhstan," Kanat Saudabayev, the Kazakh ambassador to the United States, told United Press International. "There are thousands upon thousands of active citizens of Kazakhstan, such as ... Atakhanova, and their activities are a major factor making continuous democratic development of our country irreversible."
In receiving her award, Atakhanova said she had "unbelievable feelings of responsibility and pride" to continue her work in nuclear-waste containment.
Meanwhile, Tamayo Cortez said in a statement he would use his prize money to buy a car and be more efficient in his work to protect pine forests in eastern Honduras. "I feel satisfied for inspiring many people with my work," he added.
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Shihoko Goto is UPI's Senior Business Correspondent. E-mail: [email protected]
