KASHOBA, Swaziland — When Thuli Makama set out to help struggling communities in Swaziland, she envisioned mediating agreements allowing people to collect firewood from wildlife parks.
Instead, she ended up fighting to save lives.
Makama, head of the Swazi environment group Yonge Nawe, has been investigating allegations of private park rangers killing suspected poachers in sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarchy.
Today, she was named one of this year’s winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, the most prestigious international award for environmental activists.
The U.S.-based Goldman organization hailed her as among “a group of fearless emerging leaders taking on some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems affecting not only local communities but the entire planet.”
