Categories Europe and Russia, Finland, Updates

Tero Mustonen, the founder of Snowchange Cooperative, receives the Goldman Environmental Prize

Traditional fisherman and head of the village of Selkie in North Karelia, Finland, Tero Mustonen, is a well-known scholar of biodiversity, climate change, and Indigenous issues. He founded Snowchange Cooperative (ICCA Consortium Member) and is the regional representative for the Circumpolar Arctic at the ICCA Consortium Council. We congratulate Tero on winning this prestigious award.

Tero Mustonen. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize

First published on 05/05/2023, and last updated on 06/06/2023

Shared by ICCA Consortium Secretariat


The Goldman Environmental Prize announced its 2023 winners on April 24. The founder of Snowchane Cooperative (ICCA Consortium Member) and leading Indigenous expert Tero Mustonen is one of the winners this year.

Tero is a well-known scholar of Arctic biodiversity, climate change, and Indigenous issues. He is also the regional representative for the Circumpolar Arctic at the ICCA Consortium Council.

We congratulate Tero on winning this prestigious award.

In the announcement, the Goldman Prize mentioned that Tero had won the prize for his work on climate and energy issues.

“Since April 2018, Tero Mustonen led the restoration of 62 severely degraded former industrial peat mining and forestry sites throughout Finland—totaling 86,000 acres—and transformed them into productive, biodiverse wetlands and habitats. Rich in organic matter, peatlands are highly effective carbon sinks; according to the IUCN, peatlands are the largest natural carbon stores on Earth. Roughly one-third of Finland’s surface area is made up of peatlands.”

Read the full bio on the Goldman Prize website here.

Video courtesy by the Goldman Environmental Prize