Runner-Up: Sebastian Chuwa
Restoring the forests of Kilimanjaro

When Sebastian Chuwa left his childhood home on the southern slope of Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro 30 years ago to work as a conservator at the Ngorongoro Crater, he couldn't have predicted that he would one day be back on the legendary mountain, helping both Kilimanjaro and its people. And yet, since 1991, that's exactly what he has been doing. The million-plus residents of the agricultural area surrounding Africa's tallest peak have for centuries relied on the mountain's generous rainy seasons and glaciers, but severe climate change has led to decreased rainfall and a receding glacial cap. Facing scorched crops and empty reservoirs, villagers have turned to logging out of desperation, thus depleting the forests that have always flourished on the slopes. With deforestation only worsening the drought, Chuwa began spearheading community-based campaigns to restore the dwindling forest, and his teams have since planted more than one million trees. But Chuwa has not missed the forest for the trees: He is also educating the youth of Kilimanjaro so that future generations will know how to love, and preserve, their homeland.
–Max Fisher

Runner-Up: Ketut Sarjana Putra
Putting an end to Bali's turtle trade

In his quest to save Indonesia's once plentiful turtles, Bali native Ketut Sarjana Putra faced an unusual and intractable opponent: centuries of religious tradition. The sacrifice of a turtle, an important symbol in local mythology, was until recently the centerpiece of a Balinese Hindu ceremony widely practiced on the island. This religious practice—not to mention a market price of $20 to $50 a turtle, a princely sum in the depressed Indonesian economy—meant the sale of as many as 35,000 turtles a year on Bali. Though Putra was able to persuade the government to regulate the trafficking of turtles, he knew that only deep-rooted social change could save the species. So he did what many had considered impossible: He persuaded the island's 37 most important religious leaders to ban turtle sacrifice in their ceremonies. Despite a backlash within the community—for a time, protesters even carried WANTED posters depicting Putra—the turtle trade has virtually disappeared on Bali.
–Max Fisher

The Judges
The following individuals helped select this year's winner and runners-up:

Frances Beinecke, president, Natural Resources Defense Council

Blythe Danner, actor/environmentalist; advisory board member of Environmental Advocates, the Environmental Media Association, and the Union of Concerned Scientists

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, chairwoman, Historic Landmarks Preservation Center; author of The Landmarks of New York: An Illustrated Record of the City's Historic Buildings

Larry Fahn, executive director, As You Sow Foundation; past president, Sierra Club

Harrison Ford, actor; president, HF Productions; vice chairman of the board of directors, Conservation International

Thomas E. Lovejoy, president, H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment

Anthony D. Marshall, former ambassador to Kenya, Madagascar, the Seychelles, and Trinidad and Tobago

Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature; scholar-in-residence, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont

Marilyn Perry, chairwoman, World Monuments Fund

Lisa Renstrom, president, Sierra Club

Patricia Skyer, natural resources team leader, USAID Namibia; winner of the 2002 Condé Nast Traveler Environmental Award