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Region: Africa
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Nzambi Matee’s small workshop in Nairobi, Kenya is chock-a-block with metal pipes and machine cogs.
It may seem chaotic to outsiders but the 29-year-old Matee, an inventor and entrepreneur, is at home here. This is where she developed the prototype for a machine that turns discarded plastic into paving stones – an invention that underpins her company, Gjenge Makers.
2019 Young Champion of the Earth for Africa Adjany Costa is one of 70 individuals and groups recently recognized by President of the Republic of Angola João Lourenço for civil duties.
When Cyclone Idai hit Beira in Mozambique, 25-year-old Jessica Gimo and her family were terrified by the destruction it caused.
She recalls: “The walls in my grandmother’s house were destroyed, her windows and roof were blown away. My cousin was devastated by the floods and she had to stay in a tree for three days without water or food to escape the water.
Environmental crime has become the world's fourth-largest crime sector, growing at 2–3 times the rate of the global economy.
On 20 October, Kenya celebrates Mashujaa Day. Set aside to celebrate heroes who fought for the country’s independence, today we also recognize the actions of bold individuals who continue to fight for the environment and its protection.
The 2019 Young Champion of the Earth for Africa is Adjany Costa from Angola. Adjany is committed to saving one of the world’s last wild places, the Okavango Basin.
Twenty-nine-year-old Angolan Adjany Costa wins the prestigious Young Champions of the Earth Prize for Africa for her efforts in conserving the world’s last wild places.
Seven young entrepreneurs under the age of 30 with big ideas for environmental change have been recognized from across the globe.
When twenty-nine-year-old wildlife ethno-conservationist Adjany Costa was younger, the beach was the only natural place safe to go. Civil war, which plagued Angola for three decades until 2002, made exploring impossible.
In Tamale, Northern Ghana, 25-year-old Hyginus Laari kept coming back to a problem he saw widespread in his community. Open defecation, instead of using toilets, contributes to the spread of bacterial diseases such as cholera and diarrhea.
Volunteering every weekend with humanitarian organizations is not for the faint-hearted. For Mani Yezid, a water and sanitation student in Burkina Faso, the work has been hard, but rewarding.
“I really wanted to make a difference in my community,” he said. “I saw the great difference that our work made, and I wanted to continue helping others in my capacity as a student studying water and sanitation issues.”
When 27-year-old Peter Moll was young, his grandmother told him tales of the landscape and animals. From the semi-nomadic Maasai indigenous community in Kenya, his upbringing was closely tied to the environment.
But then he learned about deforestation, poaching, resource extraction and pollution. With environmental conservation rooted in his heritage, he felt compelled to act.
Young Champion of the Earth from 2017, Mariama Mamane, turns water hyacinth, an invasive species, into fertilizer, bio-gas and energy.
The sun fades fast on a small village surrounding the outskirts of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital city. Shadows fall in long dark lines across a neat row of houses. A group of school children race through the alleyways on their way home, clutching their school books.
As the sun beats down on a traditional loom in Burkina Faso’s morning heat, a curious shiny material starts to emerge. Not your usual cotton texture, the weft criss-crosses over-and-under, and the woven product is smooth and sparkling.
This International Day of Happiness on 20 March reminds us that life is happier when we’re together. It urges us to focus on what we have in common, rather than on what divides us.
One thing that has the power to bring us closer together is art. Art can also bring us closer to nature, helping to blur the boundaries between the “concrete jungles” of our cities and outside spaces.
Serge Attukwei Clottey is the founder of Ghana’s GoLokal performance collective. His work explores the cross-cutting themes of environmental protection and social justice. His concept of “Afrogallonism” is a celebration of the yellow gallon containers, initially used as cooking oil canisters and then recycled to collect water or fuel.
The 2018 Young Champion of the Earth for Africa, Shady Rabab, recently visited Kibera during his first trip to Sub-Saharan Africa. His organization, the Rabab Luxor Art Collective, raises awareness about plastic pollution and turns waste into colorful musical instruments.
In the crowded classroom, a music class is underway. The sounds of flutes and shakers, gradually becoming more synchronized with practice, fill the air. Teachers at the front laugh in approval as children dance and stomp their feet with such energy that the school’s tin roof begins to rattle.
Shady Rabab is the Young Champion of the Earth for Africa. The Young Champions of the Earth Prize is powered by Covestro.
Rabab is Founder of Rabab Luxor Art Collective, and Co-Founder of the Malakout music band.
Today, 9 August, is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This year's theme is “Indigenous Peoples' Migration and Movement.” We spoke to thirty-four-year old Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an indigenous woman from the Mbororo pastoralist community of Chad, to ask whether she believes there is a future for nomadic communities?
Mariama Mamane, 2017 Young Champion of the Earth for Africa, shares her experiences implementing a project to create fertilizer and bioenergy from aquatic weeds.
July 2018
The solution is in nature
Today, everyone is talking about climate change and water, air or soil pollution. But I think we have alternative solutions right before our eyes already, in nature. Nature has always had an ability to heal itself. We can help it by using science and technology.
Young Nigerian water expert wins top UN Environmental prize
UN Environment today made Niger’s Mariama Mamane a Young Champion of the Earth for her work on a three-in-one solution to some of Africa’s biggest environmental problems: a project that uses the water hyacinth, which chokes waterways across the continent, to create sustainable energy and environmentally friendly fertilizers.
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Young Champions of the Earth is a forward-looking prize designed to breathe life into the ambitions of brilliant young environmentalists.