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It was a morsel by Talmudic scholar Rashi that spurred Nick Carter, one of seven winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize, to pursue a life of environmental activism.

In a Genesis passage, Rashi offers an interpretation of the Hebrew word for dominion. The word, a compound, has two parts: One translates literally to "dominion," the other to "descent."

Rashi's interpretation "is that if a man is worthy, he has dominion," said Carter, a Jewish resident of Zambia who was in San Francisco this week to accept his prize. If a man is not worthy, then "he goes below the level of the animal.

"That set me thinking," said Carter, a 69-year-old British native who won the annual prize for his fight against the illegal wildlife trade. "The amount of insight Rashi had into this word was for me wonderful. It effectively changed my life."

That change came 40 years ago. Carter had left the British army not long before and was searching for his life course. He found it in the environmentalist movement, working with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He made his mark as the first person in the world to document and expose large-scale pirate whaling.

This week, Carter was recognized for his work in creating the first multinational organization that combats illegal wildlife trade around the world; Carter's group, formed in Africa, helps to apprehend poachers and dealers trafficking in endangered species. The 5-billion-dollar wildlife-trade industry is the world's most profitable form of organized crime, after arms and drug dealing.

The Goldman Environ-mental Prize is a project of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, established in 1989 by San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman and his late wife Rhoda to recognize grassroots environmental heroes around the world.

Each winner of the juried prize receives $75,000, which he or she may use for any purpose. Carter says his money will go to the Fighting Wildlife Crime Fund, which he co-founded.

Reflecting on winning the coveted award, which was announced to him during a recent 6 a.m. telephone call, Carter said: "I'm a little bewildered by it all, to be honest." He said he does not even know who nominated him for the honor.

Other winners of the eighth annual Goldman Environmental Prize include Alexander Nikitin, a Russian former naval officer who exposed the potential for nuclear catastrophe in northwestern Russia; Terri Swearingen, a nurse who fought for tighter standards for hazardous waste incinerators in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia; and Juan Pablo Orrego of Chile, director of the Group to Save the Biobío, one of the world's last major free-flowing rivers.

Monday, honorees received their prizes in a ceremony at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre. "All of them are equally impressive in what they're doing," Richard Goldman said. "Many have sacrificed to protect the enviroment."

Carter, whom Goldman calls "the first admitted Jewish recipient" of this prize, said his practice of Judaism has taken a hit as a result of his work. Lusaka, Zambia, after all, can hardly be called a hub of Jewish life.

"I miss going to shul when I'm in Zambia," Carter admitted, adding that he has plenty of Jewish texts to keep him company at his home in the African nation.

These, he said, help him experience Judaism through the avenue that suits him best: intellectual exploration and questioning.

"I suppose I've got an investigative mind," he said. "I like to look into things."