Six Grassroots Activists Receive 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize on April 21

San Francisco - The Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to six grassroots environmental activists from around the world on April 21, 2026, recognizing their efforts to combat climate change and preserve biodiversity. All recipients of the 2026 prize are women, marking the first time this has occurred since the award's creation.

@AJEnglish reported that the winners are Iroro Tanshi from Nigeria, Borim Kim from South Korea, Sarah Finch from the United Kingdom, Theonila Roka Matbob from Papua New Guinea, Alannah Acaq Hurley from the United States, and Yuvelis Morales Blanco from Colombia.

Each recipient receives $200,000 in prize money and is chosen from one of the world's six primary regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The prize was created in 1989 by philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman.

Yuvelis Morales Blanco, the 24-year-old winner for the South and Central America region, successfully stopped the introduction of commercial fracking into Colombia by fighting oil companies. She grew up in a family of fishermen along the banks of the Magdalena River in the Afro-Colombian community of Puerto Wilches, Colombia.

' Her activism began after a major oil spill in 2018 along the Magdalena River, which forced the relocation of dozens of local families and killed thousands of animals. Morales Blanco organized protests that helped halt fracking projects and elevated fracking as an issue in Colombia’s 2022 election.

She faced intimidation and temporarily relocated due to her activism.

Borim Kim, the winner for the Asia region, started the Youth 4 Climate Action organisation in South Korea. She won a ruling from South Korea’s Constitutional Court that the government’s climate policy violated the constitutional rights of future generations. This marked the first successful youth-led climate litigation in Asia.

Sarah Finch, the winner for the Europe region, fought oil drilling in southeastern England for more than a decade with the Weald Action Group. The UK Supreme Court issued the 'Finch ruling' in June 2024, stating that authorities must consider fossil fuels’ impacts on the global climate before granting permission to extract them.

Finch told The Times newspaper she will use her prize money to keep fighting fossil fuels.

Theonila Roka Matbob, the winner for the Islands and Island Nations region, led a campaign in Papua New Guinea that resulted in Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest mining company, agreeing to address environmental and social devastation caused by its Panguna copper mine. The mine was closed 35 years ago following an uprising.

Alannah Acaq Hurley, the winner for the North America region and from the Yup’ik nation in the United States, fought alongside 15 tribal nations to stop a copper and gold mining project in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. The project threatened ecosystems, including the largest wild salmon runs in the world.

Iroro Tanshi, the winner for the Africa region, rediscovered the endangered short-tailed roundleaf bat. She has been working to save the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in Nigeria from human-induced wildfires. Tanshi spoke to her team members as they set out to set traps for bats in Etankpini village in Odukpani, Cross River State, according to handout images provided to @AJEnglish.