Award-Winning Partners

ELAW partners are the world`s leading grassroots advocates, including seven winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize. Our latest award-winners hail from Mexico and Chile. Congratulations Patricio and Miguel!

Miguel Fredes
2006 Finalist: Environmentalist of the Year, Latin Trade Magazine

Attorney Miguel Fredes scored a major victory against a multi-million dollar illegal logging racket that was devastating ancient forests in southern Chile. For years, the government of Chile allowed trade in the endangered "alerce" tree, a majestic conifer that is a relative to the giant sequoia. Despite alerce`s protected status, Chilean authorities allowed the export of alerce logged before 1973, or trees damaged by fire or disease. Miguel says: "This made a perverse incentive to log, burn, and illegally trade alerce trees." Miguel prompted a criminal investigation of corrupt authorities and won a landmark victory when the government announced it would allow no further export or trade in alerce. ELAW has worked with Miguel for many years and provided him with critical legal support in the alerce case.

Patricio Martin
2006 Lannan Award for Cultural Freedom

Patricio Martin is a staff attorney at Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA). Patricio runs CEMDA’s Cancun office and is the only staff attorney working to protect the fragile coral reef ecosystems of the region from threats by high-density hotel development, urban sprawl, and other forms of environmentally destructive economic development. ELAW is collaborating with Patricio and partners in Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala to protect the Mesoamerican Reef. The 2006 Lannan Award for Cultural Freedom also went to David Barsamian, Pratap Chatterjee, Fernando Garavito, Leanne Hinton, Charles Kernaghan, and Hugo Morales.