Panguna mine – Papua New Guinea’s Theonila Roka Matbob is honored for tackling decades of pollution and social harm left by the Panguna copper and gold mine.
A copper and gold mine can end more than a business cycle—it can reshape an entire landscape for generations.
That is the reality facing Theonila Roka Matbob. one of the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize winners. recognized for efforts to repair both environmental and social damage tied to the Panguna mine in Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville.. Her work sits at the intersection of contamination. community rights. and accountability—an approach driven by what she describes as life lived under “survival mode.” For her. the story begins close to home. where the rainforest she grew up imagining was replaced by rock. sand. and a web of warnings about what not to touch. eat. or trust.
From rainforest to “poison”: what the mine changed
Roka Matbob grew up near the Panguna copper and gold operation. which produced vast amounts of copper and precious metals between the early 1970s and the late 1980s before being abandoned.. While the mine’s output stopped, the consequences did not.. In her account. the environmental harm showed up in everyday life long before any official reckoning: she heard repeated advice to avoid water and rivers because they were “poisonous. ” and to treat anything that landed on the ground with suspicion—questions that eventually led her to demand answers.
The conflict that followed—and the pollution that outlasted it
The Panguna mine’s legacy is also inseparable from violence.. Tensions escalated into a decade-long civil war as outside labor was brought in and profits were extracted. drawing in military action and evolving into an insurgency.. For people living near the mine, the conflict was not a distant political event—it was personal.. Roka Matbob’s father was taken by an armed group when she was just under three years old. and later killed.
When the mine shut down amid the unrest, contamination did not automatically disappear.. Roka Matbob says there was no plan to address ongoing environmental damage. leaving communities to navigate poisoning and disrupted ecosystems without a roadmap for restoration.. After a peace agreement was signed in 1998. she describes frustration that the agreement did not tackle underlying environmental devastation or the way thousands of people were effectively denied a normal island life.
Turning protest into accountability
Her activism began while she was still in school, leading protests as a teenager.. Later. she became a lead complainant in a landmark human rights complaint filed by the Human Rights Law Centre against Rio Tinto.. The legal and advocacy campaign mattered not simply because it challenged a powerful corporation. but because it forced the question of “what now?”—what remediation should look like. who should be responsible. and how impacted communities should be heard.
Progress followed.. In 2021. Rio Tinto agreed to fund an independent assessment. and in 2024 it signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at working with impacted communities to address and remediate the situation.. While she welcomes steps that bring direct engagement, she also emphasizes the emotional cost of waiting.. When the environment is already “broken. ” there is little room for celebration; the focus shifts to timelines. feasibility. and the urgency of repair.
Why the fight is still personal—and still ecological
Roka Matbob’s motivation is rooted in identity and land.. She is from the indigenous Nasioi people and the Basikang clan. where the environment is described as inseparable from daily life.. That framing is crucial: remediation is not just technical cleanup but cultural survival.. For communities that rely on land and water as part of how they live. the line between ecological harm and human harm becomes hard to draw—especially when contamination affects food safety. water access. and long-term community health.
Her decision not to leave is also tied to social geography.. She says moving would mean entering another tribal territory where she would not be welcome. and more importantly. it would not solve the underlying problem—because her children and grandchildren are going to live there too.. “There will always be here. ” she explains through the logic of continuity: the goal is a lasting solution. not temporary safety elsewhere.
The Goldman Prize adds a cash component, but she insists that spending decisions must be made with the community.. In her view, the award only has meaning if it strengthens collective direction.. It also reinforces a practical reality: environmental repair requires coordination—between residents. local governance. and the stakeholders capable of funding or implementing remediation.
The gender dimension of environmental recovery
Roka Matbob’s path also reflects how gender can shape environmental advocacy in complex ways.. She notes that politics and the broader culture are patriarchal. yet she simultaneously frames women’s leadership as a natural extension of their roles as “land guardians.” In her language. she describes a proverb that captures both conflict and peacemaking: tears can start a fight. but they can also broker peace.. In this context. her work becomes both a political act and a moral one—an insistence that affected communities deserve more than promises.
For many observers, her recognition may look like a single heroic story. For residents living with contamination, it is something different: the slow construction of leverage, where being heard by decision-makers is only one step in a longer process of remediation and restoration.
The hard truth: some damage can’t be reversed
When asked what would mark the end of her work, she does not offer a simple finish line.. She says the damage is irreversible, so the definition of “done” must change.. Instead of imagining a return to a previous state. she focuses on sustaining hope and pushing the community toward a future where survival is no longer the default mode.
That is the wider lesson embedded in her activism: environmental recovery is rarely only about biology or engineering.. It is also about justice—about whether the people most affected by extraction are granted the authority. resources. and timelines needed to recover.. Misryoum readers may recognize the tension everywhere. from polluted watersheds to degraded forests: restoration can be long. contested. and uneven. but it becomes more possible when communities lead and accountability follows.
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