Fatima Jibrell was born and brought up in the grasslands of Somalia. After immigrating to the United States, she returned to Somalia to found African Development Solutions (ADESO), an NGO that has worked to ban mining and the export of charcoal made from trees already threatened by water scarcity and desertification. ADESO actively engages men, women, youth, elders and nomads to join in the political participation surrounding natural resources issues and fights for peace, in the context of years of civil unrest. Jibrell is one of the few to focus on Somalia’s marine environment and the indiscriminate use of ocean resources by foreign trawlers involving overfishing and illegal dumping of toxic waste. Photo credit: The Goldman Environmental Prize
