WASHINGTON— Environmental activists all over the world are fighting to protect local people and resources despite increasingly being under threat. They stand up to powerful corporate and political interests, refusing to be silenced.
On April 26, 2017, WRI will host Prafulla Samantara, of this year's incredible Goldman Environmental Prize winners. In 2003, Samantara saw a newspaper article announcing Vedanta Resources’ plan to build an open-pit bauxite mine in eastern India’s Niyamgiri Hills. The proposed $2 billion project would have destroyed more than 1,600 acres of forest, polluted a critical water source and displaced members of the 8,000-person Dongria Kondh tribe in the process.
Samantara biked across the Niyamgiri Hills to mobilize the indigenous Dongria Kondh people, who were unaware that the Indian government had appropriated their sacred lands to an $11.4 billion corporation. He also filed a lawsuit. After a decade-long legal battle, India’s Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in 2013 that affirmed the Dongria Kondh’s land rights.
After sharing his incredible story, Samantara will join a conversation with experts on access to justice, indigenous land rights and sustainable development.
The Goldman Environmental Prize is one of the most prestigious environmental awards, which recognizes champions from six continents. The names of the recipients were announced on April 24, 2017.
Many environmental activists face unconscionable retribution for their work. In recent years, two Goldman Environmental Prize winners, Isidro Baldenegro López and Berta Cáceres, were killed. Nearly half of the 281 human rights activists murdered globally in 2016 were champions of environmental, land and indigenous rights.
WHAT
2017 Goldman Environmental Prize recipient Prafulla Samantara’s firsthand account of his David-and-Goliath fight to protect the indigenous Dongria Kondh’s sacred land from a $2 billion mining project, followed by a conversation on improving access to environmental justice.
WHO
- Prafulla Samantara, 2017 Goldman Environmental Prize Recipient, Asia
- Manish Bapna, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, World Resources Institute
- Abigail Moy, Global Director, Legal Empowerment Network, Namati
- Moderator: Carole Excell, Project Director, The Access Initiative, World Resources Institute
WHEN
April 26, 2017
12:30-2:00 pm EDT
WHERE
World Resources Institute
James A. Harmon Conference Center
10 G Street NE, Suite 800
Washington, DC, 20002
RSVP by emailing Sophie Boehm, Communications Specialist for WRI's Governance Center, at sophia.boehm@wri.org.