SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Margie Richard, a former middle school teacher who fought for environmental justice from Shell Chemical in her hometown of Norco, Louisiana, has been named the first African-American to receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.

At a press conference announcing the 2004 Prize recipients in San Francisco on April 19th, Richard said modestly of her landmark environmental victory, "We aren't where we oughta be, but we aren't where we were." Richard continued, "The doors to environmental justice will no longer be shut."

Margie Richard joined two grassroots activists from Bhopal, India who have rallied the world in solidarity around Dow Chemical's accountability for the world's worst industrial disaster, and a brave Ghanaian public interest lawyer fighting the World Bank's plan to privatize his country's water supply in receiving the Prize. These activists are among the seven extraordinary recipients of the 15th annual Goldman Environmental Prize that was presented in San Francisco on April 19, 2004 and in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2004.

The Goldman Environmental Prize, considered the "Nobel Prize for the Environment," is given annually to grassroots environmental heroes from six geographic areas: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. (Two winners will share the Asia award this year.) The Prize includes a no-strings-attached award of $125,000, the largest of its kind. The Goldman Environmental Prize celebrated its 15th anniversary this year, and a survey of past recipients for the occasion revealed that their combined work has positively affected an estimated 102 million people worldwide.

Margie Richard, 62, this year's North American winner, grew up just 25 feet away from the fence line of a Shell Chemical plant the size of nine football fields that releases more than 2 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air each year. Four generations of Richard's family have lived in the Old Diamond neighborhood of Norco, Louisiana, located within the area known as "Cancer Alley." High rates of cancer, birth defects and other serious health ailments plague the town's 1,500 predominantly African-American residents.

For more than 13 years, Richard led a community campaign demanding fair and just resettlement costs from Shell for her family and neighbors too impoverished to relocate to a safe area. In 2002, thanks largely to Richard's efforts, Shell agreed to cover relocation costs for Old Diamond's residents - the first community relocation victory of its kind in the Deep South. The multinational giant also agreed to reduce their emissions at the Norco plant by 30 percent.

In addition to Margie Richard, the 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize winners are:

Africa: Rudolf N. Amenga-Etego, 40, Accra, Ghana
Visionary public interest lawyer Rudolf Amenga-Etego of Ghana has gained international recognition for suspending a major water privatization project backed by the World Bank. The devastating plan would further impede access to clean drinking water, a crisis linked to high rates of disease in low-income communities. The privatization would also place an especially harsh burden on Ghanaian girls, whose school work suffers because they literally shoulder the responsibility of providing water for their families.

Asia: Rashida Bee, 48, and Champa Devi Shukla, 52, Bhopal, India
Despite their poverty and poor health due to toxic gas exposure, Bee and Shukla have emerged as leaders in the international fight to hold Dow Chemical accountable for the infamous 1984 Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal, India that killed 20,000 and left more than 150,000 seriously injured. (Union Carbide became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow in 1999.) They organized the first global hunger strike to draw international attention to Dow's deadly legacy and traveled the world to protest at Dow shareholder meetings. Now on the 20th anniversary of the disaster, Bee and Shukla are plaintiffs in a class action suit demanding a clean up of the noxious factory site and damages to cover medical monitoring and costs incurred from years of soil and water contamination.

South and Central America: Libia R. Grueso Castelblanco, 43, Buenaventura, Colombia
In a major victory for the Afro-Colombian civil rights movement, social worker and activist Libia Grueso secured more than 5.9 million acres in territorial rights for the country's black rural communities, including those in Colombia's lush Pacific rainforest. Years of armed conflict, rapacious development and the narcotics industry have displaced Afro-Colombians and created an ecological catastrophe. Despite life-threatening circumstances, Grueso's brave work passing "Law 70," historic legislation that officially grants Afro-Colombians territorial rights on lands they have populated for hundreds of years, gives hope to this environmental justice struggle.

Europe: Manana Kochladze, 32, Tbilisi, Georgia
British Petroleum is leading an international consortium, which includes California-based Unocal, for the construction of the $3 billion BTC project that would establish the largest pipeline in the world, crossing through Georgia, a country mired in poverty and political instability since gaining independence from Russia in 1991. For the U.S., the pipeline is a way to tap oil reserves in former Soviet states while bypassing Iran and Russia. But the route would run through a national park and pristine mountain gorge, home to Georgia's commercially prized mineral water and one of the few successful enterprises in Georgia's economy. Kochladze's fearless tenacity in the face of widespread government corruption and multinational industry interests has won critical concessions to protect local villagers and the environment and has forced a thorough examination of the project's environmental and health impact.

Islands and Island Nations: Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho, 37, Dili, East Timor
Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho is a founding father and environmental hero of East Timor, the world's newest nation. A former resistance leader during the Indonesian occupation, de Carvalho is largely credited for spearheading the progressive inclusion of environmental justice tenets in East Timor's constitution. These principles will play a critical legal and symbolic role in guiding sustainable management of the island's rainforests, coral reefs and vast oil and gas reserves.

"After 15 years, the Goldman Environmental Prize continues to honor inspiring grassroots heroes who are often opposing special interests," said Richard N. Goldman, founder of the Goldman Environmental Prize. "More than 100 prize recipients from 61 countries have made the Prize representative of the growing environmental movement. We appreciate the sacrifices they make for all of us in order to gain understanding of the myriad of environmental issues facing us today."

About the Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize allows individuals to continue winning environmental victories against the odds and inspire ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the world. The Goldman Environmental Prize was created in 1990 by civic leaders and philanthropists Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman. Richard Goldman founded Goldman Insurance Services in San Francisco. Rhoda Goldman was a descendant of Levi Strauss, founder of the worldwide clothing company.

The Goldman Environmental Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals. Prize winners participate in a 10-day tour of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for an awards ceremony and presentation, news conferences, media briefings and meetings with political, public policy, financial and environmental leaders.

ATTENTION EDITORS: Detailed biographical information and photographs of all of the winners are available. Broadcast-quality video of the winners in their home countries is available as well. Prize winners are in San Francisco April 15-19 and Washington, D.C., April 21-23. Use the following contacts for more information and to schedule an interview:
Fenton Communications, 415-901-0111
The following media contacts may also be reached by cell phone: Mike Smith (415-613-8517), Simon Aronoff (415-235-6421), Michelle Mulkey (415-987-7377)

Background on the prize and previous winners are available at www.goldmanprize.org.

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