Protectors and Winners

Six grass-roots activists from around the world will celebrate Earth Day today by receiving Goldman Environmental Prizes in a San Francisco ceremony kicking off a week of appearances on both coasts.

Nominated by a global network of 19 environmental organizations, the four men and two women will each receive a “no strings attached” award of $75,000 from the Goldman Foundation in San Francisco.

“They have demonstrated that going beyond what is normally anticipated in their careers to protect the environment can be very risky, yet highly rewarding,” said Richard N. Goldman, chairman of Goldman Insurance, in making the announcement. The winners:

* North America: Edwin Bustillos, 31, from Mexico’s Sierra Madre, an engineer working to create a 5-million acre biosphere reserve, despite the violent drug culture, to protect North America’s most biologically diverse mountain range.

* South/Central America: Marina Silva, 38, from Brazil’s Amazonia who worked with the late Chico Mendes organizing the rubber tappers’ peaceful demonstrations against deforestation and now represents them as the first rubber tapper elected to the federal Senate.

* Asia: India’s M.C. Mehta, 49, a public interest attorney who has won 40 landmark environmental Supreme Court victories, helping to reduce the industrial pollution that has fouled the Ganges River and eroded the marble facade of the Taj Mahal.

* Island Nations: New Zealand’s Bill Ballantine, 59, a marine biologist who led a hard-fought campaign to establish “no-take” marine reserves, which now provide a global model for preserving ocean ecosystems. * Africa: Journalist Amooti Ndyakira, 39, Uganda’s sole reporter addressing environmental issues who, at threat of personal safety, has disclosed wildlife and natural resource destruction, raising public and governmental awareness of the need for protection.

* Europe: Science teacher Albena Simeonova, 31, of Bulgaria has overcome ill health and battled opposition in her crusade to raise public awareness of environmental issues, leading opposition to nuclear power construction and linking environmental lawyers with municipal actions.

The awards will be presented tonight at the Herbst Theatre, where the ceremonies will be opened by Ken Wiwa Jr., son of slain Nigerian environmental activist (and Goldman Prize winner in 1995) Ken Saro-Wiwa. He also will memorialize Rhoda Goldman, co-founder with her husband of the prize in 1989, who died this year.

This week’s schedule for the Goldman winners includes a Wednesday visit to the United Nations and a press conference in Central Park, and a Friday press conference at the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, D.C.