Malgorzata Gorska, photo: www.goldmanprize.orgPolish ecologist Małgorzata Górska is one six recipients of the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize, awarded by the Goldman Environmental Foundation.
She has been honoured for her role in the civic campaign to protect the Rospuda Valley in north-eastern Poland, one of Europe’s last true wilderness areas, from a controversial Via Baltica highway project that would have destroyed the region’s sensitive ecosystems.
The Goldman Environmental Prize, now in its 21st year, is awarded annually to six environmental leaders and is the largest award of its kind with an individual cash prize of $150,000. Magdalena Górska has said she does not decided yet how she is going to spend the money.
“It will undoubtedly be projects connected with nature protection,” she said.
The other recipients or the 2010 Prize come from the United States, Costa Rica, Cuba, Swaziland and Cambodia.
Małgorzata Górska is the second Pole to have received the Goldman Environmental Prize. Jadwiga Łopata received it in 2002 for her achievements in the promotion and protection of ecological farming.
The Goldman Foundation praised her efforts to mobilize NGOs and the civil society, as well as the European Commission and the European Parliament to protect the valuable site.
A conservationist with the Polish Society for Protection of Birds, Malgorzata Gorska lives in a small village on the outskirts of Poland’s famous Biebrza marshes, the mecca of bird watchers from around the world. “The fight to save the unique wildlife sites in Poland proved that high quality nature is an important value for society, and if there is a will, usually it is possible to find a compromising solution for economic development and nature protection”, she said. (kk/mk)
More about the Goldman Environmental Prize: www.goldmanprize.org