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.”
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, founders of iNaturalist. The popular citizen-science platform has enabled millions of people globally to share more than 200 million plant and animal observations. The observations have contributed to the identification of dozens of new species, rediscovery of species not seen for a long time, and improved understanding of species ranges in response to climate change. In all, users of iNaturalist have logged nearly a quarter of all named species on Earth, according to the Heinz Family Foundation.
“For the general public, iNaturalist provides a gateway to expert knowledge and a meaningful way to engage with nature through biodiversity monitoring and stewardship,” Loarie said in the statement. “For researchers, it offers a global network of ‘eyes and ears,’ enabling the collection of extensive data that would be impossible to gather independently.”
Teresa Heinz added that through iNaturalist, Loarie and Ueda have advanced citizen science “at a remarkable scale, enabling people from all walks of life, communities and backgrounds to connect with the wonder of nature.”
Teresa Heinz established the Heinz Awards in 1993 to honor the memory of her late husband, U.S. Senator John Heinz III. The award is given annually to individuals who make outstanding contributions to the arts, the economy and the environment.
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