Goldman Environmental Prize winner aims to heal her environment : NPR

Theonila Roka Matbob from Papua New Guinea is one of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize winners. She is recognized for her efforts to repair the environmental and social damage caused by a copper and gold mine.

Goldman Environmental Prize

hide caption

toggle caption

Goldman Environmental Prize

Theonila Roka Matbob was born in what should have been a lush rainforest. His family’s home is near the center of the largest island in Papua New Guinea’s autonomous Bougainville region in the Pacific Ocean.

Instead, she said, the mountains around her were mostly rock and sand. “You have to travel kilometers, in another region and another territory, to find the trees, the forest,” explains Roka Matbob, now 35 years old.

She grew up hearing constant warnings about the environment. “From our grandparents and our parents, the advice we always give you is this: don’t go near the water. Don’t go near the river. It’s toxic. Don’t eat anything that falls on the ground,” she remembers. “And they don’t tell you why.”

Roka Matbob started asking questions and eventually she understood why.

Her work as an activist to repair environmental and social damage has earned her The Goldman Environmental Prize for 2026. The winners were announced today: local environmental champions, one from each of the world’s inhabited regions. Roka Matbob won for the island nations.

The trigger for his environmental problems – and his activism – is a mine.

Roka Matbob grew up just minutes from the Panguna copper and gold mine, developed by Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies headquartered in Australia and the United Kingdom. The mine near Roka Matbob’s home was managed by subsidiary Bougainville Copper Ltd. Although the mine has long been abandoned, between 1972 and 1989 it produced millions of tons of copper and hundreds of tons of gold and silver.

The Panguna mine, in the autonomous region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. The mine has been closed for decades but has left environmental traces.

Goldman Environmental Prize

hide caption

toggle caption

Goldman Environmental Prize

This also caused a **** emotion, ten-year civil war – a situation that began when tensions turned to violence when the mining company brought in outside labor and withdrew profits. The army was mobilized to stop the uprising and the conflict turned into a separatist insurgency. The war cost thousands of lives and wreaked havoc on the community. Just days before Roka Matbob’s third birthday, his father was taken away by an armed group and then killed.

Amid the unrest, the mine closed. But, says Roka Matbob, this led to new problems. There was no plan to address the environmental damage and contamination.

“I was born into this broken environment. Growing up, it was a life in constant survival mode,” explains Roka Matbob. She adds that her mother and the rest of her family were “nomads” in search of security. They eventually settled in a government-controlled camp.

When a peace agreement was signed in 1998, Roka Matbob said it did not address the underlying problems, including continued environmental devastation and the fact that thousands of people were being “denied a normal island life.”

Her activism began when she was a high school student leading protests. She then became the lead plaintiff in a landmark human rights complaint filed by the Human Rights Legal Center against Rio Tinto. The result was hailed as a major victory. In 2021, Rio Tinto agreed to fund an independent assessment and, in 2024, signed a memorandum of understanding to work with affected communities to remedy the situation.

“Theonila is leading a historic effort to achieve justice after decades of environmental and social devastation from the Panguna mine,” Ilan Kayatsky of the Goldman Environmental Prize said in a statement to NPR. “She understood that no one else would step forward to coordinate a campaign and demand accountability. Her efforts brought together a coalition committed to improving the lives of Bougainvillians, today and in the future.”

NPR spoke with Roka Matbob to learn more about her work and her perspective on conquering challenges that may seem insurmountable. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When did you realize you could make a difference?

There were some important steps. In 2019, when we – the community – invited the Human Rights Law Center to really come and listen to us. Just getting along was, for me, progress.

Then, when they supported us by publishing a report called After the mine: living with Rio Tinto’s deadly legacywe received a note from Rio Tinto saying they had never been on the ground to understand the impact. And, for me, it was still progress: they read it.

And then, filing a complaint and Rio Tinto responding within 24 hours was progress because it was a platform where I could speak directly. [to them].

So you published a report and filed a lawsuit, and the mining company responded. How did that make you feel?

This is a dream come true for me: the opportunity to represent the voice of the people and speak directly to the stakeholders who have changed our lives. I shed tears to say, in the end, my grandmother didn’t do it [get to talk directly to them] but I’m going to do it now.

But, while we welcomed it, when you’re constantly in a broken environment, it doesn’t give you space to pause, celebrate, and move on. So the next layer is: how soon [can we fix it]? How long will this take?

You have been fighting for this for many years. Is there anything you come back to that continues to motivate you?

I come from the Nasioi indigenous people and the Basikang clan, where the land and environment are an inseparable part of my life. We coexist. [We don’t have that] and that’s something I can’t take lightly.

Have you ever thought about just leaving?

I can’t move because if I have to move, I will be moving to another tribal territory, and that is considered a no-go area. So this is where my children and grandchildren will also live. We will always be here. We need a lasting solution, so that motivates me.

What else motivates you?

Being a mother. No mother would want to pass on a broken and contaminated part of the environment to her child. I have two children [ages 8 and 4] and there are so many kids who are their age but don’t have mothers who can go out and fight.

You were one of very few women elected to the House of Representatives from Bougainville, where you continued your advocacy. How have gender dynamics played into your work?

It’s a bit tricky. Politics – culture – is very patriarchal. But it is also a blessing. [In my clan,] we women are the caretakers and caretakers of the earth. There is this proverb in my language and on my territory: it takes a woman to cry to start a fight, and it also takes a woman’s tears to negotiate peace. SO [this fight to get answers and solutions] it is truly the place of women in the community.

Theonila Roka Matbob (right) and community members from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. Roka Matbob says she and her neighbors will decide how to spend the money that comes with her Goldman Environmental Prize.

Goldman Environmental Prize

hide caption

toggle caption

Goldman Environmental Prize

This Goldman honor comes with a cash prize. What do you plan to do with it?

This is a decision to be made with the community. It takes a village to create a victory. So it also takes a village to make this decision.

When will you feel like your work is done? When there is a green rainforest around you?

No. The damage caused is irreversible. I will work as long as this activism brings hope to people. I want them to be able to understand their why and begin to move from living in survival mode to living in thriving mode.