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United States
Laurene Allen
Laurene Allen protected thousands of New England families affected by PFAS-contaminated drinking water. Her campaign pressured an industrial giant—responsible for leaking toxic forever chemicals into community drinking water sources—to close in May 2024, marking an end to more than 20 years of rampant air, soil, and water pollution.
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Peru
Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari
In March 2024, Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari and Asociación de Mujeres Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana won a landmark rights of nature court decision to protect the Marañón River in Peru. For the first time in the country’s history, a river was granted legal personhood—with the right to be free-flowing and free of contamination.
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Tunisia
Semia Gharbi
Semia Gharbi led a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia, resulting in the return of 6,000 tons of illegally exported household waste back to Italy, its country of origin, in February 2022. The EU has now tightened its rules for waste shipments abroad.
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Albania
Besjana Guri & Olsi Nika
Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika’s campaign to protect the Vjosa River from a hydropower dam boom resulted in its historic designation as the Vjosa Wild River National Park by the Albanian government in March 2023. This precedent-setting action safeguards the Vjosa River throughout Albania, as well as its free-flowing tributaries.
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Mongolia
Batmunkh Luvsandash
Batmunkh Luvsandash’s activism resulted in the creation of a 66,000-acre protected area in Dornogovi province in April 2022, abutting tens of thousands of acres already protected by Batmunkh and allies. The protected area, in the heart of the Eastern Gobi Desert, forms an important bulwark against Mongolia’s mining boom.
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Canary Islands
Carlos Mallo Molina
Carlos Mallo Molina helped lead a global campaign to stop the construction of Fonsalía Port, which was officially canceled by the Canary Islands government in October 2021. The massive recreational boat and ferry terminal threatened a 170,000-acre marine protected area on the island of Tenerife, home to sea turtles, whales, and sharks. Now Carlos is now realizing his vision for a world-class marine conservation and education center.
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Honoring grassroots heroes
