Among the UNEP laureates is Brazil’s Minister of Indigenous Affairs Sonia Guajajara, who was born in the Amazon rainforest. UN Announces 2024 Champions of the Earth Laureates Climate and Environment
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced on Tuesday the six laureates of the 2024 Champions of the Earth award. The laureates were recognised for their “outstanding leadership, bold action and sustainable solutions” in the fight against land degradation, drought and desertification.
Established in 2005, the Champions of the Earth Award is the United Nations’ highest environmental honour. UNEP presents the award annually to individuals and organisations working on innovative and sustainable solutions to tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Champions of the Earth transform economies, innovate, lead political change, fight environmental injustice and protect the planet’s natural resources.
Over the past 19 years, the Champions of the Earth award has recognized 116 laureates, ranging from world leaders to inventors of revolutionary technologies. They include 27 politicians, 70 individuals, and 19 groups or organizations.
Introducing this year’s six Champions of the Earth award winners.
Amy Bowers Cordalis, USA
A lawyer and member of the Yurok Native American tribe of California, Amy Bowers Cordalis has fought for decades to restore the natural flow of the Klamath River in the United States.
The Klamath River, which flows through Oregon and California, was once the third-largest salmon waterway in the western United States, but four hydroelectric dams built with From 1911 to 1962, the river was dammed, leading to a decline in the native salmon population, which was vital to the traditional Yurok way of life.
In October, Amy Bowers Cordalis and the Yurok Tribe celebrated a victory when crews of workers cleared the last of four dams on the Klamath River under federal order, the culmination of decades of Yurok struggle, protests, and lawsuits. Amy Bowers Cordalis played a key role in the process, helping negotiate a settlement with California, Oregon, and the dams’ owner that led to the dams’ decommissioning.
Gabriel Paun, Romania
After years of cataloging illegal logging in Romania’s national forests, 47-year-old environmental activist Gabriel Paun was attacked, harassed, threatened, and run off the road by a car. Gabriel says there’s a price on his head.
Gabriel Paun has spent decades battling what he calls the “forest mafia” – criminal gangs of loggers wreaking havoc on the last remaining patches of Europe’s ancient forests.
Romania is home to two-thirds of Europe’s last remaining ancient forests, according to the European Union. They are home to some of Europe’s largest populations of large carnivores, including lynx, brown bears and wolves.
Romania’s ancient forests have been under threat of extinction for decades. In 2019, the country’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Forestry said that more than half of all logging in Romania was unauthorized.
Lu Qi, China
Led by Lu Qi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, hundreds of scientists are battling desertification and trying to create a green oasis in the Ulan Bukh Desert.
The Desert Forestry Experimental Center, located in Bayannur City in Inner Mongolia, studies data and grows drought-resistant seedlings from China’s driest areas.
Ulan Bukh is one of the country’s largest deserts and part of a desert ecosystem that covers more than a fifth of China’s land area. The country has been struggling with desertification for millennia, and climate change has made the process worse. The encroaching sands threaten farmland and villages and cause direct economic losses of up to nine billion dollars annually.
Lu Qi has led more than 50 research projects, published 180 papers, written 20 books, and helped China adopt the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. The 61-year-old scientist tirelessly uses his wealth of experience to revive the desert.
Madhav Gadgil, India
Madhav Gadgil’s academic career has spanned six decades, taking him from the libraries of Harvard University to the highest echelons of the Indian government.
Madhav Gadgil has always considered himself a “people’s scholar.” His research has helped protect vulnerable people, supported community conservation of forests and wetlands, and influenced environmental policy at the highest levels.
Madhav Gadgil has written seven books and at least 225 research papers. His landmark scientific work, known as the Gadgil Report, calls for the protection of India’s fragile Western Ghats mountain range in the face of growing threats from industry and the climate crisis.
SEKEM, Egypt
In 1977, SEKEM founder Ibrahim Abouleish returned to Egypt after 20 years of working abroad in the fields of chemistry and pharmacology.
At the time, Egypt faced a dilemma: the country needed to feed a rapidly growing population, but its agriculture was poorly developed, farmland was turning into desert, and the excessive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers was poisoning the soil.
In a pristine stretch of desert northeast of Cairo, Ibrahim Abouleish pitched a tent and founded SEKEM. It was named after the hieroglyph meaning “energy of the sun.” The organization soon became a center for biodynamic agriculture, a form of organic farming that is based on harmony with nature, human development, and spirituality.
Ibrahim Abouleish’s first investments were a tractor and, much to the surprise of local farmers, a piano. His son Helmy, now SEKEM’s CEO, says the piano symbolized the importance of emotion and feeling in reconnecting humanity with nature. Father and son led SEKEM together until Ibrahim’s death in 2017.
Sonia Guajajara, Brazil
Sonia Guajajara, born in the Amazon rainforest, never thought she would one day make history as the first indigenous woman to become a minister in Brazil. That’s exactly what happened in January 2023, when President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appointed Sonia, 50, as Minister of Indigenous Affairs.
The remarkable rise from activist leader to minister is a landmark event in the history of Brazil’s indigenous peoples, giving them an unprecedented voice in defending nature and shaping policies regarding their rights, territory, and future.
Sonia’s appointment has increased indigenous representation in Brazilian politics, overseeing the official recognition of indigenous territories, and advocating for their rights at major conferences like the annual UN Climate Change Summit.