China Program Report

In July, ELAW Fellows and volunteers met with Hon. Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for Oregon. Pictured, left to right:
Zhang Yige, Ma Yan, Judge Ann Aiken, Li Bing, and Augustine Niber (see "Q&A with Augustine Niber" in this issue).

Ma Yan

Lawyer and environmental law professor Ma Yan spent ten weeks at ELAW this summer. She is the third in a series of ELAW Fellows from the Beijing-based Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV).

The ELAW China Program is building CLAPV`s capacity to protect the environment and public health in China, and connecting Chinese public interest attorneys with pioneering advocates in 70 countries around the world.

Ma Yan enjoyed a busy summer. In the mornings she studied English with more than 200 international classmates at the University of Oregon`s American English Institute. In the afternoons she worked with ELAW staff lawyers and scientists on her cases. In the evenings she worked on an environmental law text that her law students will use this fall at the China University of Political Science and Law.

On the weekends Ma Yan found time to explore Crater Lake National Park, hike in nearby forests, raft the McKenzie River, and enjoy barbecues with new American friends. Many thanks to Ma Yan for her hard work, warmth, generosity, and culinary expertise!

Li Bing

ELAW owes tremendous thanks to Li Bing, a Beijing lawyer and University of Oregon master`s student. Over the past year Bing has provided countless hours of pro bono services to ELAW`s China Program.

A native of Ningxia Province (near the Mongolia border, by the Yellow River) Li Bing lives in Eugene with her husband Xiang Kui, a PhD candidate at the University of Oregon, and their five-year old son Leo.

Li Bing says she volunteers because the environment is one of China`s most urgent issues. "ELAW can raise public awareness about environmental protection through training lawyers, community meetings, and helping with technology," she says.

This year Li Bing received the University of Oregon`s International Student Leadership and Involvement Award.
Congratulations and many thanks to Li Bing for her high impact work!

Cai Xianfeng

Cai Xianfeng, environmental law professor at Ningbo University Law School, Ningbo, China

Cai Xianfeng will arrive in September from Ningbo, China, a "small" Chinese city of two million, located 200 kilometers south of Shanghai. Cai Xianfeng is an environmental law professor at Ningbo University Law School. The university`s 1,000 law students are now required to study environmental law.

Cai Xianfeng and his colleagues want to launch an environmental law clinic at Ningbo University. During his two-month ELAW Fellowship, Cai will work with ELAW and other organizations to learn about environmental law clinics and determine the best organizational structure and resource needs for Ningbo University. Cai will also attend an intensive English program at the American English Institute.

Special Thanks

ELAW`s China Program would not be possible without the support of Jim Olivier and ADM. Many thanks for your generous support! We also thank volunteers Michele Li and Zhang Yige.

Community Legal Education

The Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide helps local advocates inform decisionmakers and engage citizens to build a healthier future for communities and the planet.

ELAW partners publish guides to citizen participation; train community "paralegals" to represent community interests in administrative, legislative, and judicial proceedings; and empower citizens to play a role in decisions that impact their lives.

Our partners often produce unique materials to educate communities about their legal rights, and help them win victories for the environment and public health.

Laos

Hongthong Sirivath teaches villagers in Pajudone, Laos, about the importance of conserving natural resources.

From a draft land rights training guide being produced by Hongthong Sirivath and colleagues at Village Focus International.

This summer, ELAW welcomed Hongthong Sirivath for a two-week advocacy training program. Hongthong is producing the first ever nationwide citizen guide to land use laws in Laos. The guide will be used by trainers to help rural communities manage and use natural resources sustainably. Hongthong lives in Vientiane where he works for Village Focus International.

Hongthong says, "Land use planning is a big focus. We are trying to help the people in smaller villages set boundaries and classify land use types within those boundaries. For example, we help them set up recreation areas and conservation areas, for fish and wildlife. We promote activities that relate to legal advocacy so that people can learn their rights within the law and how to protect those rights. We are trying to bring the laws to the villages via pamphlets that summarize the key articles of the law. We are developing materials appropriate for people in rural areas."

Ghana	Jamaica
From the Paralegal Training Manual produced by the Center for Public Interest Law in Ghana (see Q & A with Augustine Niber, this issue).	This citizen guide to Jamaica`s environmental laws was produced by the Jamaica Environment Trust.
	Guatemala
From a guide to public participation produced by the Center for Environmental, Legal and Social Action of Guatemala (CALAS).
Honduras
ELAW and the Environmental Law Institute of Honduras (IDAMHO) are publishing this bi-monthly "Green Gazette" to provide citizens with information about developments in environmental law.
"We are putting the power of law into the hands of the people." Lori Maddox ELAW Associate Director

Victories for Communities: Major victories for Uganda; Chile; Malaysia

UGANDA

Mabira Forest and Bugala Island saved

Red-tail monkeys live in Mabira Forest. (PHOTO: photohome.com)

ELAW partners are celebrating major victories for Uganda`s forests. In May, the government of Uganda abandoned plans to convert three forest reserves on Lake Victoria`s Bugala Island into palm oil plantations. The government also suspended a proposal to convert one third of the Mabira Forest Reserve – a popular nature spot near the capital city Kampala – into a sugarcane plantation.

ELAW connected partners at the Uganda Wildlife Society with an economist at EcoNorthwest who
provided options for evaluating the true cost of cutting Mabira Forest. ELAW scientists also provided details about the environmental impacts of palm oil plantations, including the impacts of pesticides and the highly polluted effluent discharged by plants that process palm kernels into oil.

CHILE

Justice for toxic waste victims

In the northern port town of Arica, a low-income neighborhood is finally seeing justice. In late May, Chile`s Supreme Court ordered financial compensation for 356 residents of Cerro Chuno, a community contaminated by toxic heavy metals.

For more than a decade, children in Cerro Chuno have suffered from learning disabilities and neurological disorders caused by lead poisoning. Residents were unaware of the dangers posed by abandoned mining wastes, left in piles where children played.

ELAW partners at Fiscalia del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) worked for 10 years to win justice for Cerro Chuno, the site of an illegal toxic waste dump.

More than 20 years ago, a Chilean company imported 21,000 tons of toxic mining wastes to the city of Arica, one of the driest inhabited places on earth. Wind spread toxic dusts from the waste piles, which were later abandoned. In a classic case of environmental injustice, a low-income housing project was built next to the piles of waste. In 1998 the waste was removed and dumped in a nearby ravine, with no further cleanup.

At FIMA`s request, ELAW scientist Meche Lu traveled to Arica and collected soil samples from the affected neighborhood for analysis at a laboratory in Oregon. The samples were found to contain lead, arsenic, and cadmium far above those considered safe for urban areas. Meche returned to Arica with FIMA attorney Francisco Ferrada to testify in court about the results of the soil analysis. She informed the court about the continuing health risks of contamination in the affected neighborhoods.

Fernando Dougnac, President of FIMA, sent thanks to ELAW scientist Meche Lu: "Your testimony was mentioned in the court decision and was one of the key pieces of this decision . . . it is so great to win, particularly when the court decision brings justice to the dispossessed."

In a historic ruling, each of the affected residents will receive $16,000 from the Government of Chile. This is the first time a Chilean court has required the government to pay for failing to protect citizens from injuries caused by environmental contamination.

MALAYSIA

Clean Air for Broga

ELAW partners in Malaysia report a stirring victory for clean air! Lawyers with the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP), have been working for years with the community of Broga to protect their air quality from a huge proposed incinerator. CAP filed a petition to the High Court to stop construction. In July, Malaysian government lawyers announced in court that the government is canceling the incinerator and will instead focus on reducing wastes.

ELAW scientists worked with CAP to make their case. After reviewing plans for the incinerator, ELAW Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik pointed out that project proponents had failed to present a plan for controlling toxic emissions, including deadly dioxin. Mark prepared an affidavit explaining that plans for the incinerator were badly flawed, and it could sicken and kill local citizens.

The Broga incinerator would have been Malaysia`s largest and would have generated huge amounts of air pollution. ELAW will now work with its partners to encourage waste reduction, and spread news of this victory around the world.

The lawyers at the Consumers Association of Penang thanked ELAW scientists for their help. They wrote:
"We couldn`t have done this without you."

Q&A With Augustine Niber

Augustine Niber, Director of Litigation at the Centre for Public Interest Law in Accra, Ghana, is shown with ELAW Communications Director Maggie Keenan, while being interviewed on KWVA 88.1 FM

Augustine Niber is Director of Litigation at the Centre for Public Interest Law in Accra, Ghana. During a summer internship at ELAW he gathered legal and scientific resources from around the world to help protect disadvantaged communities from cyanide spills and oil pollution. In September, Augustine will complete a masters of law degree at Indiana University’s Program in International Human Rights.

What is the focus of your work?

I help communities impacted by polluting mining operations
seek compensation. By litigating, I am trying to improve government policy.

What inspired you to pursue this work?

My inspiration to become a lawyer came about because my father, an assistant director of education, was arrested and detained without charges and dismissed from his job. That was in 1986. We couldn’t afford a lawyer to defend him. This inspired me to become a lawyer and to make my services available to people who cannot afford lawyers. And it inspired me to try to ensure that fundamental rights are not violated by mining companies and other groups.

What have been your greatest successes?

Some of our biggest successes have been getting mining companies to better compensate people for taking their property, getting those same companies to recognize the rights of the communities that their operations affect, and getting the state environmental protection agency to get companies to comply with laws and pay more attention to the communities. We brought an action against the state environmental agency to force them to put pressure on companies, and we also recently brought an action against a government oil refinery for contaminating a lagoon. Both cases are pending.

What is your hope for the people of Ghana?

I hope to make government more responsible for protecting the rights of people in communities in mining areas or where natural resources are exploited.

Making the World Safe for Children

Lost in the headlines of celebrity babies and imprisonments earlier this summer was a grim report issued by the World Health Organization, which stated that four million children under the age of five (roughly equal to the population of Oregon) die every year as a result of exposure to environmental pollutants.

Children are pound for pound more susceptible to toxin exposures simply by virtue of drinking more water, eating more food, and breathing more air than adults. Add to this their unique vulnerability to irreversible damage caused by such exposures, given that their organ, nervous, and immune systems are still undergoing rapid growth and development, and it becomes clear why our children suffer the greatest risks from our wanton damage to the environment.

This is why the work of organizations like ELAW is so vitally important. By collaborating with grassroots advocates from disadvantaged communities across five continents to protect children from noxious emissions, polluted groundwater, and dangerous chemicals, ELAW is providing the critical expertise needed to reduce the numbers of children sickened, stunted, or killed by environmental toxins.

Thanks, ELAW, for treating the environment, and children, as something of value that must be protected.

Todd Huffman, M.D., McKenzie Pediatrics, P.C., Springfield, Oregon

THINK GLOBALLY. ACT GLOBALLY.
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