Wanze Eduards is a

Saramaka The Saramaka, Saamaka or Saramacca are one of six Maroon (people), Maroon peoples (formerly called "Bush Negroes") in the Republic of Suriname and one of the Maroon peoples in French Guiana. In 2007, the Saramaka won a ruling by the Inter-Ameri ...

leader from the Republic of Suriname for the village of

Pikin Slee Pikin Slee (also Pikienslee) is a village on the Upper Suriname River in the resort Boven Suriname of the Sipaliwini District. It is home to about 3,000 people, and the second largest village of the Saramaka Maroons, after Aurora. Overview Pikin ...

. During the 1990s logging companies encroached on the village of Pikin Santi. Extensive

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civi ...

caused by faulty bridging resulted in the loss of large plots of agricultural land. Eduards joined efforts with

Hugo Jabini Hugo Jabini is a Saramaka Maroon politician and environmental leader from Suriname. In 1998 he became the spokesman of the Association of Saamaka Authorities (Dutch acronym VSG). In 2007 he and Wanze Eduards were part of the VSG team that won an l ...

of the nearby village Tutubuka to fight the companies. He was awarded the

Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize is a prize awarded annually to grassroots environmental activists. History Awardees are named from each of the world's six geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, an ...

in 2009, jointly with Jabini, for their efforts to protect their traditional land against logging companies, by bringing the case to the

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des ...

, and further to the

Inter-American Court The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I/A Court H.R.) is an international court based in San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it was formed by the American Convention on Human Rights, a human ri ...

. Their efforts resulted in a

landmark ruling Landmark court decisions, in present-day common law legal systems, establish precedents that determine a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially affect the interpretation of existing law. "Leading case" is commonly u ...

regarding the right of tribal and indigenous people in the Americas to control the

exploitation of natural resources The exploitation of natural resources describes using natural resources, often non-renewable or limited, for economic growth or development. Environmental degradation, human insecurity, and social conflict frequently accompany natural resource ex ...

in their territories.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Saramaka Surinamese environmentalists Goldman Environmental Prize awardees {{environmentalist-stub