Three LATAM Women Were Awarded the 2020 Goldman Prize

The 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to five activists in the fight against environmental pollution and climate change. Three of the winners are from the Latin American and Caribbean region.

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The Mayan indigenous leader Leydy Pech was honored for her contribution to put an end to the farming of genetically modified soybeans in Mexico by the U.S. company Monsanto. In September 2017, Mexico's Food and Agricultural Service revoked the company's permit to grow such crops in seven states.

The Ecuadorian Waorani Indigenous people leader Nemonte Nenquimo was honored for having achieved a court ruling to protect the Amazon rainforest and Waorani territory from oil extraction. In 2019, she led the lawsuit that suspended an oil concession project, thereby protecting 200,000 hectares of forest.

Meanwhile, the scientist Kristal Ambrose founded the non-profit Bahamas Plastic Movement aimed at promoting Oceans protection. She led a campaign to promote a ban on plastic pollution which was passed in April 2018. In 2014, she was awarded the Environmental Youth Leader Award by the Bahamian government.

Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded for the first time on 16 April 1990 as an international recognition to people who promote environmental protection and it offers financial support to their campaigns and activities.

Activists Chibeze Ezekiel from Ghana, Lucie Pinson (France) and Paul Sein Twa (Myanmar) also received the Prize. 

Of the people who received this recognition, two have died for advancing their cause: Isidro Baldenegro Lopez (Mexico) was killed on 15 January 2017, and Berta Caceres (Honduras) was murdered on 3 March 2016.