San Francisco - A West Virginia woman who says her life has been threatened for her work fighting coal-mining problems in Appalachia is among this year's winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize, the green world's equivalent of the Oscars.

A coal miner's daughter, Maria Gunnoe of Bob White, West Virginia, is among this year's winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. She works to fight mountaintop coal removal. (Photo: Antrim Caskey / The San Francisco Chronicle)

    The Goldmans, now in their 20th year, are being presented to seven activists at a ceremony in San Francisco on Monday. The prizes are sponsored by a foundation headed by San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman, who started the awards in 1990 with his late wife Rhoda as a way to honor grassroots environmental activists around the world. The recipients get cash awards of $150,000 each, which many honorees have plowed back into their respective campaigns.

    Besides the West Virginia woman, Maria Gunnoe, this year's honorees include Marc Ona of Gabon for his work fighting a Chinese-backed mining project in a rainforest; Rizwana Hasan of Bangladesh for working to reduce the environmental impact of the country's ship-demolition industry; Olga Speranskaya of Russia for working to eliminate the Soviet legacy of toxic chemicals in the environment; Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia for helping to provide green jobs to low-income people in the archipelago nation; and Wanze Eduards and Hugo Jabini of Suriname for organizing their communities against logging on ancestral lands of freed African slaves in the South American country.

    In all, 133 activists from 75 countries have been awarded Goldmans, including 12 from the U.S. Most look at the Goldmans as giving them extra protection against retaliation. But Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged by government officials on what supporters call trumped-up murder charges after he won a Goldman in 1995 for his work fighting oil development in the African country.

    This is the second time an activist has been awarded a Goldman for work fighting coal mining operations in West Virginia. In 2003, a coal miner's daughter named Julia Bond won a Goldman for helping to block the controversial practice of mountaintop removal by mining companies in Appalachia. The companies blow the tops off mountains to make it easier to mine their coal deposits. But the practice often results in streams being choked with debris and forests being devastated, Ms. Bond and other activists say.

    One of Ms. Bond's neighbors, Ms. Gunnoe, was awarded a Goldman Monday for helping organize community protests against the practice of filling in mountain valleys with debris from mining operations atop the peaks surrounding her home in Bob White, West Va. Ms. Gunnoe, also a coal miner's daughter, says she was spurred to action after her 21-acre property ended up being severely flooded in 2003 because of all the fill and denuded mountainsides. Her testimony against the practice helped prompt a federal judge in 2007 to issue an injunction against any new dumping of mining fill in valleys from a nearby mine.

    In the process, Ms. Gunnoe says she has been targeted by mining supporters, such as through verbal threats on her life and "Wanted" posters showing her face that have appeared in local stores. She has built a fence around her home and hired a security guard. Ms. Gunnoe says she hopes her Goldman will increase public pressure against mountain-top mining practices. "I'm hoping this will bring the truth of mountain-top removal to a global light," she said.

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