All Laureates

Afghanistan’s 46-year-old Director General of the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), Prince Mostapha Zaher has laid the foundation for a sustainable and peaceful future in Afghanistan. For the past five years, he has worked tirelessly for the environment in a country ravaged by 25 years of war and continues to find ways to bring…

As President of Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea (1980-1982) and as the Chairman of Preparatory Committee and of the Main Committee of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1990-1992), Professor Tommy Koh of Singapore has contributed greatly to promoting international environmental cooperation. These events are only two of…

For her stalwart commitment to quantifying the effects of climate change and her tireless efforts to transform attitudes, Canadian climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe was chosen as the Champion of the Earth for science and innovation.

One of the world’s most influential communicators on climate change, Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist…

The revolution began with magic markers for Robert Bullard, winner of this year’s Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement award. It was 1978 and the American sociologist and environmental activist was three years out of grad school when his wife, a lawyer, told him one day she was suing the state of Texas.

“There was a waste disposal…

In 2004, Ron Gonen co-founded Recyclebank, a company that brings together businesses, schools, communities and individuals to promote household recycling and more sustainable lifestyles. Under his direction, RecycleBank grew from its foundation to a company that services 50 cities and over 1 million households, thereby advancing environmental…

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…

Samson Parashina, a Maasai warrior, son of a local chief and respected safari guide, has shown amazing commitment to developing sustainable green economy models for Kenya’s Kuku Group Ranch, land communally owned by the Maasai community.

Parashina started as a waiter at an ecotourism lodge, but swiftly rose to become the President of the…

To most people, fins, masks and neoprene wetsuits are recreational gear. But to the non-profit group Sea Women of Melanesia, this year’s Champion of the Earth for Inspiration and Action, they are the tools of change.

Clad in diving gear, the group’s 30-plus members chart the health of the fragile coral reefs that surround Melanesia, a…

When Sir David Attenborough was a boy, he spent much of his free time bounding through abandoned quarries in the English countryside, hammer in hand. His prey: fossilized ammonites, spiral-shaped mollusks that lived in the time of the dinosaurs.

To a young Attenborough, the fossils were like buried treasures and he was amazed to be the…

When the United Kingdom Treasury approached Sir Partha Dasgupta in 2019 to carry out a review of the economics of biodiversity, the first time a finance ministry is believed to have commissioned such a study, the eminent Cambridge University economist did not think twice about saying “yes”.

Over the next 18 months or so, Dasgupta and his…