Public Interest Environmental Law Conference

Following the E-LAW annual meeting, E-LAW advocates attended the 19th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon. This premier environmental law conference brought together activists, academics, lawyers, scientists and students for workshops, panels and inspiring keynote speeches. E-LAW advocates took part in a wide variety of panels. Keynote addresses were given by Palo Zilincik, Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Public Advocacy in Slovakia, and Lottie Cunningham Wren, Legal Field Officer for the International Human Rights Law Group in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua.

Lottie Cunningham, Nicaragua

"What, if anything, do you hear of the other coast of Nicaragua, the Atlantic coast? Eighty percent of the people there live in extreme poverty."
- Lottie Cunningham Wren
International Human Rights Law Group, Nicaragua

Lottie is a Miskito Indian lawyer, working to protect the rights of indigenous communities living along Nicaragua`s Atlantic coast. Lottie began working with E-LAW last year.

"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win!"
- Palo Zilincik, quoting Gandhi
Center for Environmental Public Advocacy, Slovakia

Palo works to educate communities and policymakers in Slovakia about environmental issues. He has helped more citizens participate in environmental decisionmaking and advanced the right of non-governmental organizations to defend the public interest in environmental cases. Palo has worked with E-LAW since 1994.

In Danger: Green Sea Turtle

Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) (Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/David Vogel)

Green sea turtles are born on land but spend the rest of their lives at sea. They are strong swimmers and will migrate distances of 1,000 miles or more between feeding areas and nesting beaches.

At night, the females crawl onto land to lay and bury their eggs above the high-tide line. Since birds, raccoons and crabs feed on the eggs and tiny hatchlings, the survival rate to adulthood is extremely low.

The green sea turtle is one of seven sea turtle species worldwide. Having survived for 200 million years, all species are now endangered or threatened. Populations have declined due to over-hunting, human encroachment on nesting beaches, and unintentional capture and drowning in fish and shrimp trawls.

Now these saltwater reptiles face additional threats from offshore oil and gas development. Houston-based Harken Energy Corporation recently acquired the rights to explore for oil and gas in a 1.4 million-acre parcel along Costa Rica`s Caribbean coast. The concession lies just south of Tortuguero National Park — home to the largest green sea turtle nesting site in the Western Hemisphere.

Offshore oil and gas development can harm marine turtles in several ways. Oil spills and leaks leave an oily film on the turtle`s skin, hinder respiration, alter blood chemistry, and may increase susceptibility to infection. Noise and lighting from offshore structures can interfere with nesting, while the discharge of drill fluids and other pollutants contaminate feeding sites.

Harken has prepared an environmental impact study for this proposed development. However, the study is incomplete and ignores potential impacts.

E-LAW U.S. is working with Costa Rican advocates to protect marine habitats by highlighting significant errors and omissions in the environmental impact study.

Focus on Mexico: Protecting the Environment and Public Health

In his inaugural address, Mexico President Vicente Fox promised to build a "Mexico with an environmental conscience." A growing network of public interest environmental lawyers across Mexico are making sure President Fox keeps his promise.

Just six years ago, when E-LAW U.S. began looking to support Mexican advocates, Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) in Mexico City was the only environmental law group in the country. Today, E-LAW is working with five public interest environmental law organizations and several independent lawyers across the country.

After a meeting of the Red Mexicana de Derecho Ambiental (RMDA - Mexican Environmental Law Network) in Morelia, Michoacan, advocates enjoy the sights in Angangueo. (E-LAW U.S. Staff Attorney Jennifer Gleason can be seen at the far right.) In communities across Mexico, public interest lawyers face similar environmental challenges: ill-conceived power projects, inadequate environmental impact assessments, dangerous use of pesticides and more. To draw on each other`s experience defending citizens` rights to a clean and healthy environment, lawyers and environmental advocates across Mexico came together to form RMDA.

E-LAW U.S. has teamed with Mexican partners to hold training workshops in 16 cities over the past four years. The workshops have educated lawyers and citizens about their rights under Mexico`s environmental laws and encouraged citizens to exercise these rights. Support for these workshops from the C.S. Mott Foundation and NAFEC has helped nurture a new generation of Mexican public interest environmental lawyers.

Carlos Baumgarten, head of CEMDA`s litigation team, is working with E-LAW to protect Mexico`s biodiversity and ecosystems. Carlos is currently representing communities in Xcacel, 67 miles south of Cancun, that are opposing construction of a 1,400 room hotel next to one of the world`s last pristine turtle sanctuaries.

Following a three-month visit to E-LAW U.S. in 1997, Doctor Raquel Nájera Gutiérrez returned to her home in Guadalajara and formed the first environmental law NGO outside of Mexico City: Instituto de Derecho Ambiental (IDEA). Raquel is leading efforts to protect and restore Lake Chapala, the largest natural lake in Mexico. She is also working with communities to challenge the construction of thermoelectric plants near Sierra del Abra Tanchipa nature reserve.

In Veracruz, Attorney Claudio Torres is working on natural protected area regulations for the state. Claudio works for the Centro de Derecho Ambiental e Integración Económica del Sur (DASSUR).

Threats to the environment and public health in Mexico are a serious challenge. The New York Times reports: "In Acuna, as in other border settlements, Mexican workers earn such miserable wages and American companies pay such minimal taxes that its schools are a shambles, its hospital crumbling, its trash collection slapdash, and its sewage lines collapsed." (NYT, 2/15/01)

In Chihuahua and Tijuana, attorneys Agustin Bravo and Carla García Zendejas are working with E-LAW to make a difference. Agustin works with Fuerza Ambiental in Chihuahua to protect state forests and challenge pollution from maquiladoras. Carla, co-founder of Yeuani: los que luchan (those who fight) in Tijuana, provides free services to maquiladora women working in factories along the U.S./Mexico border and has gained justice for women overcome by fumes in a poorly ventilated factory.

Mexico`s splendid biodiversity and fragile ecosystems are under continuous threat from over-fishing, deforestation and uncontrolled development. While much work lies ahead for the defenders of Mexico`s environment, E-LAW U.S. stands ready to help its partners in Mexico fight for a clean and biodiverse environment.

Headlines: E-LAW in the News, Spring 2001

Mexican Environmentalists Oppose Thermoelectric Plant

March 4, 2001 — México`s leading news weekly, Proceso, reports that Alstom France and Sithe International are building two thermoelectric plants less than three miles from Sierra del Abra Tanchipa nature reserve in San Luis Potosi. E-LAW advocate Raquel Gutiérrez Nájera says the Environmental Impact Statement for the project was flawed. "The real repercussions regarding the water source and the biosphere reserve were hidden."

Raquel co-founded the Instituto de Derecho Ambiental (IDEA) in Guadalajara. E-LAW U.S. is helping IDEA identify environmental impacts that were inadequately examined in the project`s Environmental Impact Statement. Raquel has worked with E-LAW since 1995.

Chalillo Dam Threatens Belize

March 2, 2001 — The New York Times reports that a Canadian power company`s proposal to dam a branch of the Macal River in Belize has unleashed a barrage of criticism from environmentalists. Sharon Matola, the Director of the Belize Zoo, fears the dam will flood sensitive jungle habitat. She says, "This is the cradle for biodiversity for Central America. Look at the scarlet macaw; they breed in that river valley. This is the only place in Central America where they can live unmolested."

E-LAW U.S. staff attorneys and scientists have helped Belizean advocates critique the project`s environmental impact assessment. In May, 2000, the Belize government put the project on hold, pending new information.

Boise Cascade Cancels $160 million Chile Forestry Project

February 23, 2001 — Reuters reports that U.S.-based Boise Cascade has canceled plans to build a wood chip processing plant in Puerto Montt, Chile. Last year, lawyers at Fiscalia del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) filed a petition in Ottawa with a joint Chilean-Canadian committee, arguing that Chile violated its own environmental legislation when it approved the project. FIMA claimed the project would destroy about 100,000 hectares of native forest.

Attorneys Fernando Dougnac and Jose Ignacio Pinochet of FIMA were recently in Oregon for the 2001 E-LAW Annual Meeting. E-LAW has been providing FIMA with legal and scientific information to challenge Boise Cascade`s plans in Chile.

Nepal Court Bans Import of Polluting Vehicles

January 24, 2001 — The Environment News Service reports that Nepal`s Supreme Court has ordered the government to immediately stop the import of Indian vehicles not meeting Euro-I emission standards. ENS writes: "The smoke belching vehicles are a primary cause of pollution in the Kathmandu Valley which contains eight sites listed in UNESCO`s World Heritage List." Pro Public, an environmental law NGO in Nepal, filed the writ petition against the Prime Minister, Minister of Environment and other government agencies.

E-LAW U.S. is providing Pro Public with legal and scientific information describing what the U.S. and other countries are doing to control motor vehicle air pollution. E-LAW has been working with Pro Public since 1995.

E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist Joins India`s Maha Kumbh Mela

January 19, 2001 — The Environment News Service reports that Dr. Mark Chernaik, E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist, joined colleagues from the U.S. and India at this year`s Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India. The visit aimed to strengthen efforts to clean up the Ganges. More than 70 million people immersed themselves in the Ganges River during the 42-day Hindu festival. Mark and colleagues met religious leaders and public officials overseeing implementation of the Ganga Action Plan and shared the message of river clean-up and environmental law enforcement.

E-LAW has collaborated for many years with M.C. Mehta and other public interest environmental lawyers in India working to clean up waterways and protect public health.

México`s Green Dream — No More Cancúns

January 11, 2001 — The New York Times reports environmentalists are suing to stop a company in Xcacel, 67 miles south of Cancún, from building a 1,400 room hotel next to one of the world`s last pristine sanctuaries for green and loggerhead sea turtles. The New York Times says, "Today Cancún has nearly 25,000 hotel rooms, roughly three million visitors a year, and nowhere left to build. So for nearly 100 miles down the coast from Cancún, developers are paving paradise as fast as they can."

Lawyers at Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) in México City are representing local communities in Xcacel opposing the hotel. E-LAW has worked with CEMDA since 1995 to protect marine environments.

The American English Institute

Since 1991, the American English Institute (AEI) at the University of Oregon has granted scholarships to two dozen E-LAW lawyers and scientists from 14 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

L to R: Sarah Klinghammer, AEI outgoing Director; Boedhi Wijardjo, E-LAW advocate from Indonesia and AEI student; Peggy Dame, AEI Director of Special Programs

Attorneys Byron Real and Marcela Enriquez of Ecuador were E-LAW`s first Working Exchange Fellows, and the first E-LAW advocates to benefit from scholarships to AEI`s intensive 10-week English courses. They are also founding members of E-LAW.

"It was very useful," says Marcela. "There were few opportunities to speak English in Ecuador, but we wanted to communicate with lawyers and scientists from around the world through the E-LAW network. After the AEI course we could go anywhere in the world and survive."

Byron and Marcela came to the U.S. to publicize the plight of the Huaorani Indians in Ecuador`s Amazon region. These indigenous peoples were under threat by oil development by U.S. and European corporations. Soon after they arrived, Byron and Marcela realized it was difficult to get anyone`s attention without English.

Peggy Dame, AEI Director of Special Programs, put the E-LAW scholarship program in place ten years ago. She says: "We like students who have been out in the working world and we like to support good work... E-LAW diversifies our student body and brings a level of motivation and maturity that inspires other students."

AEI scholarships are a vital component of E-LAW`s Working Exchange Fellowship program. "Offering our partners the opportunity to study English enhances their understanding of U.S. law and gives them access to a world of environmental law and science resources published only in English," says Lori Maddox, E-LAW U.S. Associate Director.

Many thanks to AEI for helping E-LAW U.S. build the capacity of environmental advocates to protect the environment through law.