Fridae

Barbadian climate advocate Yemi Knight is among three recipients of this year’s Irene Dankelman Young Ecofeminist Award. WECF announced the winners after celebrating the award in Yerevan, Armenia, on 21 October, during the UN biodiversity conference.

Knight is openly queer and runs AnchorBridge Environmental. They work on disaster risk and community resilience, bringing environmental and human rights into those discussions. Their climate-literacy briefings reach feminist, LGBTQ+ and youth groups across the Caribbean, the award announcement says.

One of their fellow winners is from the Philippines: Monitte Lantas, a Tagbanwa Indigenous leader from Palawan who heads a local Indigenous youth organisation. The third is Sarah Adongo, a Ugandan lawyer working with communities affected by land evictions.

This is the award’s second edition. It recognises environmental work by young women and gender-diverse people, with gender justice part of its purpose. Four organisations established it: WECF, WEDO, IUCN NL and Both ENDS. It honours the late Irene Dankelman and her work on gender and the environment.

The organisers say each winner will receive a cash prize to support their work.