Ecopravo-Lviv Hosts 2004 E-LAW Annual International Meeting

Ecopravo-Lviv staff

E-LAW advocates at Ecopravo-Lviv did a tremendous job hosting this year`s E-LAW Annual International Meeting (May 15-20) in Slavske, Ukraine, a small village on the edge of the Carpathian Mountains.

Thirty-six E-LAW advocates from 11 countries traveled to Ukraine to work together to further their pioneering efforts to protect the environment, public health, and human rights around the world. Meeting participants hailed from Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Peru, Chile, Swaziland, Tanzania, and the U.S.

Many grassroots advocates work in isolation, without access to the legal, scientific, and communications tools they need to help communities defend the environment and protect public health.

E-LAW Annual Meetings break this isolation by bringing together environmental advocates from around the world for face-to-face training and collaboration.

E-LAW advocates learned from each other`s efforts to protect ecosystems in their home countries. For example, lawyers and scientists at Ecopravo-Lviv presented their ongoing work protecting the Danube Delta. Ecopravo-Lviv is challenging the Ukrainian government`s ongoing canal project connecting the Danube River and the Black Sea. The canal could have a significant impact on the unique environment of the Danube Delta. The Delta has been internationally recognized as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO`s Man and the Biosphere Programme (1998) and a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention in 1995.