Congratulations to the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winners!
Since 1989, the Goldman Prize has awarded an annual prize to grassroots environmental defenders from all over the world for their work to protect and enhance the natural environment.
Each year, we are honored to see that many of the Goldman Prize winners are connected to Global Greengrants Fund—highlighting in a very tangible way the breadth of grassroots groups and communities that our advisory boards support. There are three Greengrants partners among the 2023 awardees—Alessandra Korap Munduruku of Brazil, Tero Mustonen of Finland, and Delima Silalahi of Indonesia. These three join Zafer Kizilkaya of Turkey, Chilekwa Mumba of Zambia, and Diane Wilson of the United States in receiving this year’s award.
More about the Greengrants grantee partners who received a 2023 Goldman Prize:
Photo: 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for Brazil, Alessandra Korap Munduruku
Alessandra Korap Munduruku is an Indigenous Munduruku leader and activist known for her work defending Indigenous territory in the Amazon from the intrusion of mining and logging industries.
According to the Goldman Prize, “mining caused nearly 3 million acres of deforestation [in the Amazon] between 2005 and 2025.” Under Brazil’s Bolsonaro administration, development of land for mining accelerated, not only threatening the region’s biodiversity, but encroaching on the land of Indigenous peoples without their free, prior, and informed consent.
The Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory, home to the Munduruku peoples has come under threat due to this increase in mining activity. According to the Goldman Prize, “between 2011 and 2020, 97 mining applications were filed within the territory—the most of any Indigenous territory in the country,” putting the region and its people at risk of deforestation, pollution, and loss of land.
Alessandra Korap Munduruku, together with the Munduruku peoples, campaigned to bring international attention to the mining research applications submitted in the region by Anglo American, one of the world’s largest mining companies. Because of the pressure she and her people put on Anglo American, the company formally announced its commitment to withdraw 27 approved Amazon research permits, including 13 copper mining permits within the rainforests in Sawré Muybu. This success marked an important shift in momentum for the encroachment of mining activities into Indigenous territory in the Amazon.
Global Greengrants Fund is proud to have supported groups Alessandra has been involved in.
Photo: 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for Finland, Tero Mustonen
Tero Mustonen is a scholar, fisherman, and founder of Snowchange Cooperative who brings together Western scientists, village elders, and Sámi Indigenous knowledge holders in Finland to preserve traditional culture and environments in the face of human exploitation and climate change.
According to the IUCN, peatlands are the largest natural carbon stores on Earth, making them a critical part of maintaining the global balance of carbon and fighting climate change. Finland, a country composed of one-third peatlands, is the EU’s largest peat-burning country, significantly contributing to the region’s carbon emissions and causing substantial disruption to local ecosystems.
Tero Mustonen, in collaboration with Snowchange Cooperative, has dedicated significant time and effort to reversing the loss of Finland’s peatlands. In 2018, Tero launched a project in collaboration with Finland’s Sámi Indigenous communities to acquire and restore the region’s degraded wetland ecosystems by combining traditional Sámi knowledge with modern science. According to the Goldman Prize, “by April 2022, there were 62 rehabilitated sites across Finland, totaling more than 86,000 acres,” all thanks to the work of Tero, Snowchange Cooperative, and Finland’s Indigenous and rural communities.
Global Greengrants Fund is proud to have supported Snowchange Cooperative in 2020 and 2021 with its work passing traditional ecological knowledge on to Indigenous youth in the region.
Photo: 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for Indonesia, Delima Silalahi
Delima Silalahi is a Batak woman from North Sumatra in Indonesia, an environmental activist, and executive director of Kelompok Studi dan Pengembangan Prakarsa Masyarakat (KSPPM).
Indonesia is home to a large portion of the world’s rainforests, making it a vulnerable region for industrial-motivated deforestation. According to Goldman Prize, “between 2015 and 2019, fires burned 10.8 million acres of forest and peatland, an area larger than the Netherlands.” In recent years, a pulp and paper company known as TPL has seized community land on the island of Sumatra for these purposes.
Delima Silalahi, through her work with KSPPM, has worked to educate communities in North Sumatra about laws that recognize Indigenous peoples’ land and forest rights. Together, she and these communities have mapped out and documented their traditional territories. They also organized protests and met with government officials to urge them to recognize communities’ traditional forests. As a result of these collective efforts, the Indonesian government recently granted six Tano Batak communities legal stewardship of 17,824 acres of their customary forests. This has allowed these communities to reforest the land and boost the resilience of ecosystems in the region.
Global Greengrants Fund is honored to have supported KSPPM with three grants between 2017 and 2022. Each of these grants supported the group’s efforts to educate and organize Indigenous communities in the region, and to oppose TPL’s encroachment on community-managed forests.
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While we know that grassroots environmental justice organizing is a collective effort that cannot be done alone, Greengrants celebrates the efforts and leadership of these three individuals. They join a list of more than 70 Greengrants grantees who have received Goldman Environmental Prizes since 1989.
Congratulations Alessandra, Tero, and Delima!