Demetrio
do Amaral de Carvalho, East Timor's leading environmentalist,
was awarded the prize for his work toward promoting sustainable
development and environmental protection in the newly independent
nation. He is the founder of Haburas Foundation, East Timor's
only nongovernmental environmental group.
The
East Timor Action Network congratulated de Carvalho in a
statement yesterday, calling him an "important and
vigorous advocate for East Timor's natural environment and
sovereignty." De Carvalho is credited with ensuring
that East Timor's new constitution included provisions calling
for a healthy environment and natural resource management
(ETAN release, April 19).
Rashida
Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, two Indian activists, received
the prize for their efforts to seek justice for survivors
of environmental disasters such as the 1984 Union Carbide
gas leak in Bhopal, India, that killed more than 20,000
people. The pair has galvanized grassroots environmental
movements in India and abroad, according to the prize Web
site.
Colombia's
Libia Grueso was honored for her leadership in a campaign
that secured more than 5.9 million acres in territorial
rights for the country's black rural communities in the
early 1990s. She now works to protect Colombia's Pacific
rainforest from armed conflict, environmental ruin and the
mass displacement of Afro-Colombian villagers.
Another
recipient was Margie Eugene-Richard of the United States,
who led efforts to hold Shell Chemicals company accountable
for health problems among people living near one of its
plants in the Norco, Louisiana, neighborhood where she grew
up. The campaign has been called a landmark environmental
justice victory.
Manana
Kochladze, founder of environmental watchdog group Green
Alternative, was honored for her "fearlessness and
tenacity in the face of widespread government corruption
and industry interests" in her native Georgia, according
to the prize's Web site.
The
seventh recipient was Rudolf Amenga-Etego, the founder of
the National Coalition Against the Privatization of Water,
who has gained national recognition for his successful campaign
to suspend a major World Bank-funded privatization project
in his native Ghana (Goldman Environmental Prize Web site).
Published in UN wire. Copyright, National Journal Group,
Year.
