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Fatima Jibrell, 54, a Somali American, has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize that is given each year to 6 environmentalists, one from each continent. The Prize, established in 1990 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman...
Fatima Jibrell, 54, a Somali American, has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize that is given each year to 6 environmentalists, one from each continent. The Prize, established in 1990 by Richard and Rhoda Goldman, helps demonstrate the international nature of environmental problems, draws attention to critical global issues, reward individuals for grassroots environmental initiatives, and inspire others to emulate the examples set by the awardees.
In the early 1990s, Jibrill, who returned to Somalia to establish the Horn of Africa Relief and Development Organization (Horn Relief), is also coordinator of the Resource Management Somali Network (RMSN), and helped create the Women’s Coalition for Peace to counter the emergence of a new political crisis in northeast Somalia’s Puntland region.
Jibrell has campaigned against indiscriminate charcoal production to save 50 and 500 years old acacia trees and vegetation that could better be used for grazing instead of fuels and against over-fishing by foreign trawlers and illegal dumping of toxic wastes in the Somali waters that exacerbates depletion of fish stocks.
To eliminate domestic charcoal consumption, Horn Relief promotes use of solar cookers. Jibrell teaches a grassroots response to drought and water scarcity by teaching communities to build small rock dams that help slow the runoff during the brief rainy season, and nourish vegetation, crucial in arresting the growth of arid lands. She also helped form the Buran Rural Institute (BRI) to focus on peace, political participation and natural resource issues.
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