Winners of the Goldman Environmental Awards, 2026. Photos of individuals: Goldman Environmental Awards. Edit created by Liam Swiggs, RNZ. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize / Liam Swiggs
For the first time in history, the Goldman Environmental Prize - often dubbed the "Green Nobel" has been awarded entirely to women.
Since 1990, the prize has recognised ordinary people taking on extraordinary environmental battles.
The six winners are Theonila Roka Matbob (Bougainville), Yuvelis Morales Blanco (Colombia), Borim Kim (South Korea), Alannah Acaq Hurley (United States), Sarah Finch (England) and Iroro Tanshi (Nigeria).
This year's theme for the awards was 'Change Starts Where You Stand' - we are all agents of change, every one of us.'
Their work spans environmental justice, mining and drilling, climate and energy, and wildlife protection, focusing on the breadth of challenges - and leadership - at the frontlines of the climate crisis.
At the awards ceremony, held on 20 April in San Francisco, the winners' speeches addressed a multitude of issues plaguing the planet today.
"This award honours all of us. Those who stood against all odds, those who never wavered in speaking up against greed and destruction, who have shown up year after year, writing letters, testifying at hearings, protests, and raising their kids to value people over profit," said Acaq Hurley, whose work has confronted the threat of mining across indigenous lands.
Kim, another winner, noted: "Disasters are treated as individual tragedies to be endured alone."
Also amongst the winners is Pacific representative, Matbob, an Indigenous Nasioi woman from Bougainville, an Autonomous region of Papua New Guinea.
Matbob said it was inspiring to be one of six women honoured, and that around the world, women are increasingly taking a leading role in land guardianship.
"It is becoming more prevalent that in land guardianship, and finding sustainable economic avenues to make a living and find an identity, that women are paying a lot of attention to issues that are impacting the human connection to land, and the responsibility of guardianship," Matbob said.
Iroro Tanshi poses for a portrait with a giant round leaf bat shortly after removing it from a mist net in Etankpini village in Odukpani, Cross River State, Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
Alannah Acaq Hurley in Dillingham, Alaska. January, 2026. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
Sarah Finch in Surrey, England in January, 2026. Goldman Environmental Prize winner. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
Borim Kim in front of the Taean Coal Power Plant, South Korea. January, 2026. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
Puerto Wilches, Santander. COLOMBIA. Yuvelis Morales Blanco: A winner of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize – Yuvelis sitting in a boat on the Magdalena River in front of her house. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
Theonila Roka Matbob in Papua New Guinea’s Autonomous Region of Bougainville in January, 2026 (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize) Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize
At just 35, her advocacy has driven significant change, confronting the traumatic legacy of the Panguna Mine.
It has had a fraught history of violence, displacement and severe environmental damage during its operation between 1972 and 1989, sparking a decade-long civil war that killed 10,000 to 15,000 people and left around one billion tonnes of waste on the island.
