Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa, known as the “Dalai Lama of the Rainforest,” has received Right Livelihood Award 2019.
- This award is also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”.
- Yanomami shaman Davi Kopenawa has led his people’s 20-year campaign to protect their Amazonian territory. Combined with the Yanomami territory in Venezuela, it is the largest area of rainforest under indigenous control anywhere in the world.
- Davi Kopenawa is the President of Hutukara, the Yanomami organization, who share the award with him.
- He first travelled outside Brazil in 1989, when Survival International, which won that year’s Right Livelihood Award, invited him to Europe to accept the prize on its behalf. Davi has frequently been threatened by the gold miners and politicians who target the resources inside the Yanomami territory. He lives in his community, Watoriki (the Windy Mountain), practising shamanism.
Three Other Laureates
- Human rights defender Aminatou Haidar (Western Sahara): For her steadfast nonviolent action, despite imprisonment and torture, in pursuit of justice and self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.
- Lawyer Guo Jianmei (China): For her pioneering and persistent work in securing women’s rights in China.
- Climate activist Greta Thunberg (Sweden): For inspiring and amplifying political demands for urgent climate action reflecting scientific facts.
About Right Livelihood Award
The Right Livelihood Award-established by In 1979, the Swedish-German philanthropist and stamp collector Jakob von Uexkull , was established in 1980 to “honour and support courageous people solving global problems”. It has become widely known as the ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’ and there are now 178 Laureates from 70 countries.
