An activist who has improved land use rights for thousands of people in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil regardless of personal risk has won the 2017 Wangari Maathai Forest Champions Award.

Maria Margarida Ribeiro da Silva, who lives on the Verde para Sempre Extractive Reserve in Brazil’s northern state of Pará, received the award at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany for her lifetime achievements in promoting community forest management and strengthening the role of women. Among many achievements, she helped establish the Nossa Senhora do Perpétuo Socorro do Rio Arimum (Our Lady of Perpetual Help of the River Arimum) Agro-extractivist