Malgorzata Gorky from O TOP (Bird life in Poland) has been awarded the world’s top prize for grassroots activists having led a winning campaign which stopped a road being built throughout Poland’s precious Rasped dell.
“Gorky led the first successful environmental campaign where the EU has sued a member country to protect Nature 2000 sites”, commented David Hammerstein, former Member of the European Parliament. “This was a big deal with the new countries coming into the EU regarding the environment. [..] And the leader of Poland to finish had to give in to the anxiety and stop the thruway”.
The Goldman Environmental Prize – regularly called the Nobel Prize for the environment – is awarded to men and women roughly the world who takes great personal risks to protection the environment. Throughout the campaign, Gorky and her colleagues were scared by local powers that be and major right-wing groups, and even label as Russian spies.
