Two pairs of environmentalists are being awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment this year. Each duo will receive an unrestricted, shared cash award of $250,000 and the Heinz Awards medallion. Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler received the award in 2022. Among the 2024 winners are Amira Diamond and Melinda Kramer, co-founders of Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA). They are being recognized for empowering thousands of grassroots women leaders globally to protect the environment. “What we have seen to be true through the almost two decades of WEA’s work is that networks of women community leaders are the lifeblood of this time,” Diamond said in a statement. “And when we are being pummelled by compounding crises — wars, floods, fires, earthquakes and pandemics — these women’s networks kick into gear with brilliance and foresight.” Amira Diamond and Melinda Kramer, Womens Earth Alliance. Image credit: Joshua Franzos. WEA has worked in 31 countries with more than 52,000 women, including those from Indigenous and local communities. These women lead a wide range of initiatives, including clean water projects, more environmentally responsible farming, protecting habitats, and defending land rights and ancestral ways of life. “From championing new land, water and agricultural practices to advancing eco-enterprises, Amira and Melinda are showing that together we can turn from centuries of exploitation to embrace new methods of cultivating and living on our land,” Teresa Heinz, chair of the Heinz Family Foundation, said in the statement. The other two recipients are Scott Loarie and Ken-ichi Ueda,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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