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Residents near India's largest copper smelter in Tamil Nadu are complaining of breathing problems and burning throat pain following a release of gas on March 23rd, 2013. Tamil Nadu's Pollution Control Board closed Sterlite Industries, a unit of London-based Vedanta Resources, but Sterlite filed an appeal. The National Green Tribunal has since ordered that the polluting facility remain closed except for a temporary restart of operations for the purpose of inspecting the plant.

ELAW eBulletin ELAW Fellow Nataliya Horodetska arrived from Lviv on Sunday. This is orientation week for her at the University of Oregon's American English Institute. Nataliya will be with us for 10 weeks, to collaborate on her work as Legal Advisor at Environment People Law and improve her English.

ELAW partner Leo Saldhana at the Environment Support Group is pleased to announce that plans to clear valuable grasslands and forests to make way for nuclear, defense, space, and other high tech projects are on hold.

ELAW eBulletin Environmental leaders from around the world traveled to Eugene last week for the 2013 ELAW Annual Meeting. Participants arrived from Chad, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Mongolia, Kenya, Pakistan, Ecuador, and 20 other countries.

ELAW Advocate, Winter 2013: In January, a Thai court ordered the government to clean up Klity Creek and compensate the more than 300 ethnic Karen villagers for 15 years of toxic waste in their only source of water. The Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide provided Thai partners at EnLaw with information about the dangers of lead exposure and how to clean up lead contamination. In the year ahead, ELAW will help EnLaw develop, implement, and monitor an effective clean up.

The Eugene Weekly's Camilla Mortensen interviews ELAW partners Thuli Brilliance Makama of Swaziland and Elifuraha Laltaika of Tanzania.

ELAW partner Dana Tabachnik speaks with KLCC Radio about her work at the Israel Union for Environmental Defense.

Profiles of grassroots advocates from around the world who traveled to Eugene for the 2013 ELAW Annual Meeting followed by the 31st Annual Public Interest Environmental law Conference.

ELAW partner Ipat Luna joins members of the newly-formed People's Network for the Integrity of Coastal Habitats and Ecosystems to call for the restoration, instead of reclamation, of the coastal waters of Manila Bay

The Wood River Land Trust of Hailey, Idaho has given its most prestigious award, the Founders’ Award, to ELAW Staff Attorney Liz Mitchell.

ELAW eBulletin ELAW was the Featured Beneficiary of the 2013 Dance for a Reason benefit at the Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon.

ELAW was the 2013 beneficiary of Dance for a Reason's 19th Annual performance at Eugene's Hult Center.

ELAW is named 2013 beneficiary of the 19th Annual Dance for a Reason performance.

ELAW eBulletin For years, toxic waste from a lead mine had contaminated water, soil and aquatic wildlife around Klity Creek. ELAW helped our partners at EnLAW with information about the toxic impacts of lead contamination; EnLAW then obtained a judgement from a Thai court ordering the government to clean up the creek and compensate ethnic Karen villagers in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok.

One of the most exhilarating things Heidi Weiskel hears before a business trip: Pack your boots. That means fieldwork, and whether it's studying snails in San Francisco Bay or trying to protect endangered mangroves in Panama, the sights, sounds and science of habitat exploration and preservation are more mission than job for this marine ecologist.

ELAW eBulletin Bazarsad Nanjindorj, an attorney who collaborates with the Centre for Human Rights and Development, arrived from Ulaanbaatar this week. He is working to protect communities and wild spaces in Mongolia from polluting mines.

After a legal battle that lasted almost a decade, a Thai court ordered the government to clean up Klity Creek and pay nearly $4 million in compensation to the villagers. ELAW provided partners at EnLaw with information about the dangers of lead exposure and advice on how to clean up the contamination.

Bern Johnson interview on storycatchers.org

ELAW eBulletin ELAW is thrilled to welcome Alejandra Serrano to Eugene. She joins ELAW Fellows Ana Lucia Maya from Colombia, Thuli Makama from Swaziland, and Emilio d'Cuire from Honduras who arrived earlier this year.

ELAW Staff Scientists worked closely with Mexican partner organizations DAN and CEMDA to review the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for a massive open pit gold mine in the buffer zone of the Sierra de La Laguna Biosphere Reserve.

ELAW Advocate, Autumn 2012: As the U.S. market for coal shrinks, big coal companies are looking to ship their coal overseas. ELAW is helping partners around the world protect communities, ecosystems, and the climate from the scourge of coal.

Uganda's High Court of Kampala ruled that plastic bags, commonly referred to as "kaveera," violate the right of citizens to a clean and healthy environment. The Court ordered that a bill be drafted "expeditiously" to regulate the use of all plastics less than 100 microns.

ELAW eBulletin ELAW partner Kenneth Kakuru and his team at Greenwatch are celebrating the ruling by Uganda's High Court of Kampala that plastic bags, commonly referred to as "kaveera," violate the right of citizens to a clean and healthy environment. The Court ordered that a bill be drafted "expeditiously" to regulate the use of all plastics less than 100 microns.

ELAW eBulletin Emilio D'Cuire, a young scientist who works at the Honduran Environmental Law Institute (IDAMHO) has arrived for an ELAW Fellowship to build skills to prevent mining abuses and protect the Mesoamerican Reef and the coast of Honduras from short-sighted tourism development schemes.

ELAW Advocate, Summer 2012: ELAW works with strong partners in Panama, and they are facing big challenges now. Developers are destroying critical mangroves, piling fill on fragile ecosystems, and building high rises. Mining companies seem to have an insatiable appetite for exploiting Panama’s resources.

ELAW eBulletin Lottie Cunningham Wren from Nicaragua and Ana Lucia Maya from Colombia have arrived in Eugene for ELAW Fellowships.

ELAW eBulletin ELAW’s newest Fellow, Thuli Makama is well-known within the African environmental law community because of her long commitment to protecting the rights of communities to live in a healthy environment. She is also well-known in Africa and abroad as a 2010 recipient of the Goldman Prize.

ELAW Advocate, Spring 2012: Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the world. Sparse in people, but not minerals. The government of Mongolia has issued 3,000 mining licenses, and copper, coal, gold, silver, uranium and more are expected to rise to 95% of Mongolia’s exports. "The saddest part is seeing the herders leave the lands of their ancestors. They become laborers at the mines. It is very disturbing," says Bazarsad Nanjindorj, an attorney working with the Public Interest Lawyers’ Initiative, based in the capital city, Ulaanbaatar.

ELAW eBulletin: ELAW partners Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Choudhary have won a great victory protecting communities in India from short-sighted plans to build a coal mine.

ELAW eBulletin: ELAW partners in India have won a stunning victory protecting communities in Dhinkia, Gadakujanga, and Nuagaon Gram villages from short-sighted plans for an enormous steel manufacturing facility and port. India's newly formed National Green Tribunal has suspended plans for a project that would have cut forests and forced communities to leave lands that they have lived on for generations.

ELAW eBulletin: The ELAW office is an exciting place this week! Grassroots leaders from Haiti, Mongolia, and Russia have arrived, and partners from Guatemala, Canada, and Madagascar will join us soon. These ELAW Fellows are collaborating across borders to protect the Lake Baikal watershed, challenge polluting mining operations, and win justice for disenfranchised communities.

ELAW Advocate: Winter 2012 A severe Tropical Depression last year brought 30 inches of rain in 10 days to El Salvador and 10% of the country was left under water. Experts have long predicted that global warming would lead to increased frequency and intensity of severe weather events, and they identified Central America as a particularly vulnerable region. Tragically, they were right on both counts.