Traversing the Globe

Emerging Environmental Movement in Iran
By Bern Johnson, Executive Director

Today there are 233 environmental NGOs in Iran. Ten years ago there were none. Iranian citizens are beginning to speak out for the environment and E-LAW is ready to help.

Iranian school girls admire a photo of E-LAW U.S. Executive Director Bern Johnson`s daughters. (Photo: Bern Johnson)

In May, I traveled to Tehran and Esfahan to work with government officials, academics, students and representatives of Iran`s emerging environmental organizations. My trip was sponsored by a unique organization in Washington D.C., Search For Common Ground. Search works to build trust between nations by building links between people.

I was joined in Iran by two leading U.S. professors of environmental law, Richard Lazarus of Georgetown University and Bob Percival of the University of Maryland. Richard, Bob and I participated in a three-day workshop sponsored by the faculties of environment, law and political science at the University of Tehran. Workshop participants were eager to learn about U.S. experience with environmental law and how to support citizen efforts to protect the environment. We also worked with the dean of the law school to help design the curriculum for a degree program in environmental law.

Iran faces many of the same environmental challenges that E-LAW advocates face around the world: air pollution in Tehran violates World Health Organization standards, a superhighway from Tehran to the Caspian Sea threatens a fragile coastal ecosystem, and sturgeon populations are declining in the Caspian Sea.

Search sponsored 10 Iranian environmentalists for a visit to E-LAW U.S. in 1999 to begin working together on these critical environmental issues. E-LAW U.S. staff attorneys and scientists provided our visitors with legal and scientific support. I met with many of these advocates on my recent trip.

I see real hope in Iran. People care deeply about the natural environment and are speaking out. They want to breathe clean air and make sure their children get to enjoy Iran`s natural treasures. We look forward to working with Iranians to help them challenge environmental abuse and build a sustainable future.

Reaching Out to Africa
By Jennifer Gleason, Staff Attorney

Public interest lawyers across Africa are bringing more cases to help local communities defend public health and natural resources. Framework environmental laws, such as those recently adopted in Kenya, are making it easier for the public to challenge abusive projects, protect ecosystems and clean up the environment.

In May, I joined Vincent Shauri from the Lawyers` Environmental Action Team (LEAT, Tanzania) and Glenn Gillis, E-LAW U.S. IT Manager, for a three-week trip to Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe. We worked with E-LAW`s current partners and reached out to new advocates. Vincent traveled solo to Namibia where he continued our work meeting with advocates interested in tapping E-LAW`s global network.

Kenya & Tanzania

Earlier this year, E-LAW U.S. learned about a case filed by human rights and environmental lawyer Nixon Sifuna, to stop the Kenyan government`s plans to degazette (remove from legal protection) 10% of Kenya`s forests. We started corresponding with Nixon to see how the E-LAW network could help his case. Operating on a shoestring, Nixon used the services of a cybercafe in Eldoret, Kenya, to communicate with lawyers and scientists in E-LAW`s global network.

Lawyers from Sri Lanka sent Nixon a recent decision expanding the government`s obligations to protect certain resources for the benefit of the public. Nixon hopes to use this case to support his argument that Kenya needs to conserve its remaining forests to protect scarce water sources and threatened species, as well as provide traditional hunting grounds for local communities. The High Court in Eldoret issued a temporary injunction pending the outcome of Nixon`s case.

Enroute to Eldoret, we met with several environmental lawyers and advocates in Nairobi who have been supporting Nixon`s efforts. Attorney Odhiambo Makoloo of the Centre for Environmental Policy and Law in Africa (CEPLA) joined the E-LAW crew for the trip to Eldoret. We all spent several days working with Nixon and learning more about his forest case and other work. Our visit coincided with the first hearing of the forest case.

L to R: Jennifer Gleason, Vincent Shauri, Gikandi Ngibuini (Photo: Glenn Gillis)

Back in Nairobi, we met with lawyers working on a range of environmental issues, including cases to stop the forest degazettement filed in other courts. We also worked with lawyers at CEPLA who are helping lawyers throughout the country working to protect Kenya`s environment.

The lawyers we met are bringing some of the first cases under Kenya`s new framework environmental law. These cases will create precedents in Kenya determining the direction of environmental law and environmental protection for years to come.

In Nairobi, we also met with Professor Charles Okidi who has been instrumental in the development of environmental law in Kenya. Professor Okidi has mentored many of Kenya`s environmental lawyers through his positions as lecturer at Moi University and Task Manager at the United Nations Environment Programme.

Professor Okidi and lawyers at CEPLA helped the E-LAW team contact Gikandi Ngibuini, a lawyer in Mombasa, Kenya, working to ensure that a proposed titanium mine does not destroy the Kenyan coast. We met with Gikandi at the Mombasa airport during a stopover on our way to LEAT`s offices in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Malawi & Zimbabwe

Malawi has a framework environmental law which has not yet been tested, while Zimbabwe is still trying to pass a framework law which was published as a final draft in 1998. We met passionate, dedicated lawyers pioneering movements to protect the environment in both countries. Lawyers with Greenwigs in Malawi and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association were eager to learn from Vincent`s experience creating East Africa`s leading public interest environmental law firm.

Generous support from the MacArthur Foundation and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund is making it possible for E-LAW U.S. to reach out to advocates in Africa. Later this year, we will conduct an outreach trip to West Africa.

E-LAW U.S. is pleased to play a role in building public interest environmental law in Africa, and helping protect Africa`s unique natural environment.

Circuit Riding in Africa
By Glenn Gillis, IT Manager

Imagine an entire country trying to use the net over a shared connection comparable to what some U.S. residents have available in their living rooms. Now you can appreciate what attorney Nixon Sifuna is up against when he does research online and communicates by e-mail from a cybercafe in Eldoret, Kenya.

Glenn Gillis and Nixon Sifuna (Photo: Jennifer Gleason)

During our visit to Nairobi, attorney Odhiambo Makoloo of CEPLA accompanied us to the Government Printing Office to purchase a copy of Kenya`s landmark legislation: The Environmental Management and Coordination Act, 1999. Unfortunately, no copies were available.

In neighboring Tanzania, LEAT has been transcribing national environmental legislation for future posting on a LEAT web site. African advocates challenging environmental abuse need access to local legislation. E-LAW U.S. will help our partners in Africa use the web to make this information available to advocates in East Africa and around the world.

LEAT`s web site will be a pilot project for other NGOs, such as CEPLA in Kenya, that want to make national environmental laws available easily and cost effectively, eliminating disappointing trips to the Government Printing Office.

A critical challenge in designing web sites for African advocates is ensuring that low bandwidth users can access the site. LEAT`s new web site will minimize the number of clicks required to reach crucial information and keep splashy graphics to a minimum. While working on LEAT`s site, E-LAW U.S. is simulating the lower bandwidth available to our partners to help ensure that LEAT`s pages will be accessible to everyone.

Of course, the other half of the access equation is getting lawyers the computers and training they need. Jen and I had the gratifying task of delivering two new IBM laptop computers to promising environmental lawyers in Kenya and Zimbabwe. With his laptop and initial funding for a dial-up internet account, Nixon can now avoid the long walk to a cybercafe and per-minute costs for internet research. And after a crash course in search engine fundamentals and e-mail skills, Mutuso Dhliwayo has a new tool for his efforts to establish an environmental law NGO in Zimbabwe.

Progress in Central and Eastern Europe

E-LAW U.S. and partners in the Newly Independent States held an internet training workshop in June for environmental advocates in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova. Twenty-one activists gathered in Lviv, Ukraine to learn the skills they need to be more effective environmental defenders. E-LAW`s Technology Circuit Rider in the region, Andriy Andrusevych, led the workshop with help from E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist Mark Chernaik and E-LAW co-founder John Bonine. The workshop was supported by the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

In central Europe, the proliferation of automobiles and suburban shopping malls is pushing urban boundaries deeper into the countryside. Although the problem is well-documented, there has been little activism and almost no government attention. In fact, many government policies actually promote expansive urban growth, even where populations are declining.

With support from the German Marshall Fund, E-LAW U.S. is working with lawyers in the Czech and Slovak Republics to reverse this trend. Attorney Pavel Franc from Ekologicky Pravni Servis (EPS) in the Czech Republic participated in a 10-week Working Exchange Fellowship at E-LAW U.S. earlier this year. In May, E-LAW U.S. Staff Scientist Jane Engert joined Pavel and other partners at two regional workshops to identify and promote solutions to urban sprawl.