Six activists win ‘Environment Nobel’

• Awardees took on toxic dumps, rogue governments to protect their countries

LONDON, Saturday

From the rainforests of Africa to the mountain-top coal mines of West Virginia, six campaigners who have fought governments and industry to protect the planet have won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prizes.

The awards, often referred to as the Nobel Prizes of the environmental world, went to activists in six continents who took on everything from toxic chemical dumps in the former Soviet Union to ship-breaking in Asia.

Previous winners of the award, established in 1990 by two US philanthropists, include the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa who was hanged in 1995 after leading protests against oil companies in Nigeria.

This year’s African winner is Marc Ona Essangui, who campaigned against plans by a Chinese state-owned company to open an iron ore mine in the rainforests of Gabon, west Africa.

Ona, who uses a wheelchair due to childhood polio, has been repeatedly threatened, and arrested and evicted from his home.

Could destroy

“Threats shouldn’t prevent you from carrying on your fight,” he told Reuters by phone from Gabon. “It could destroy the most beautiful forests in central Africa.”

His campaign helped lead to a review of the project, which is currently on hold, the prize’s organisers said.

The North America winner was Maria Gunnoe, a former waitress who campaigns against the environmental impact of mountain-top coal-mining in the Appalachian hills of West Virginia.

The method involves blasting the tops of mountains, removing the coal and pushing the rubble into valleys. Critics say it pollutes land, destroys streams and causes flooding.

In an area where coal is the backbone of the economy, Gunnoe has divided the community and received death threats for her activism.

“There’s a lot of people here who support what I do. But there’s others who drive in here every day for their jobs, and given a choice, they would run over me in a heartbeat,” she said in a message on her website.

In Europe, the prize went to Olga Speranskaya, a Russian scientist whose Moscow-based campaign group Eco-Accord aims to rid former Soviet republics of old toxic chemicals once used in agriculture or industry.

Most toxic