The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1987 to recognize the environmental achievements of individuals and organizations around the world.
"The winners of UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour are members of a broad and growing environmental movement that is flourishing around the world. They have taken the path that most of us hesitate to take for want of time or caring. In honouring the Global 500 laureates, UNEP hopes that others will be inspired by their extraordinary deeds." Klaus Toepfer - UNEP's Executive Director 2001
The last Global 500 Roll of Honour awards were made in 2003. A successor system of UNEP awards called Champions of the Earth started in 2005.
Since the inception of the award in 1987, over 719 individuals and organizations, in both the adult and youth categories, have been honoured with the Global 500 award. Among prominent winners are:
Anil Agarwal, the prominent environmentalist from India
Sir David Attenborough, producer of environmental television programmes
Idelisa Bonnelly, 1987 Dominican Republic marine biologist who created the first Humpback Whale Sanctuary
Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway
Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States. He later won the Nobel Peace prize.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau, French marine explorer
Jane Goodall of the United Kingdom whose research on wild chimpanzees and olive baboons provided insight into the lives of non-human primates
Gabriel Lewis-Charles, the prominent environmentalist from St Lucia
Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, a Kenyan grassroots environmental organisation. She later won the Nobel Peace prize.
Harada Masazumi, Japanese medical researcher heavily involved in the study of Minamata disease
Shoaib Sultan Khan, Pioneer of Rural Development Programmes in South Asia.
Chico Mendes, the Brazilian rubber tapper who was murdered during his fight to save the Amazon rainforest
George Monbiot, British journalist and researcher
Nikita Moiseyev a prominent Russian scientist, leading expert on consequences of nuclear war - "nuclear winter"
Ken Saro-Wiwa, the environmental and human rights activist from Nigeria who was executed for leading the resistance of the Ogoni People against the pollution of their Delta homeland
the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF)
