Laureates by Category

Jeff Orlowski won in the Inspiration and Action Category for his work on spreading powerful environmental messages to a global audience. Orlowski is the founder of Exposure Labs, which uses the power of storytelling to create impact. In 2012, he directed the climate-focused documentary, Chasing Ice, which has been screened in over 172…

Saihanba Afforestation Community won in the Inspiration and Action category for transforming degraded land into a lush paradise.

Saihanba, which covers 92,000 hectares and borders the southern edge of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, had by the 1950s become barren due to excessive logging, allowing sand to blow into…

Afroz Shah, a young Indian lawyer from Mumbai, is synonymous with the world’s largest beach clean-up project.

In October 2015, Shah and his neighbor Harbansh Mathur, an 84-year-old who has since passed away, were frustrated with the piles of decomposing waste that had washed up and completely overwhelmed the city’s Versova beach.…

Before her murder, Berta Cáceres threw her life into a tireless grassroots struggle for the rights of marginalized and poverty-stricken indigenous peoples in her native Honduras.

Her death in early 2016, aged 44, sparked an international outcry at the unacceptable levels of violence and intimidation facing environmental activists in many…

For outstanding courage in fighting the illegal wildlife trade at community level

The Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit is a majority women group of rangers, founded by Transfrontier Africa to protect the Olifants West Region of Balule Nature Reserve, part of Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa. The area where the Black…

In this age of social media and selfies, of the widespread portrayal of disengaged youths glued to smart phones in search of diversion rather than information, many have chosen to write off the next generation of activists. At the age of just 19, Boyan Slat is disproving such attitudes with a vengeance as he charts new territory in the quest…

It is difficult enough to be an environmentalist in nations where peace prevails, struggling in the face of business interests and systems based upon outmoded ways of thinking. To do so in nations riven by conflict, where speaking out can lead to threats and, in extreme cases, death, requires a whole new level of courage. Fatima Jibrell is one…

Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food in 1986 as a response to the opening of a McDonald’s outlet in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. Today the movement exists in over 150 countries and has a network of over 100,000 members and supporters. Slow Food International is responsible for publishing periodicals, books, and guides in many languages around the world…

Martha Isabel Ruiz Corzo is responsible for achieving Biosphere Reserve status for the Sierra Gorda under an exceptional public-private co-management system. Through her work and advocacy, 33 per cent of the State of Querétaro is now protected as a Biosphere Reserve. In 2008, the Sierra Gorda in the neighboring state of Guanajuato also achieved…

Born into a dynasty of scientists who have explored the heights and depths of the planet, Bertrand Piccard achieved the first ever non-stop round-the-world balloon flight. An internationally renowned medical doctor and psychiatrist, aeronaut and lecturer, initiator of the Solar Impulse program, chairman of the Winds of Hope charitable…