Latest News

ELAW Advocate, Autumn 2015

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Mayan beekeepers in Campeche and Yucatan, Mexico, are celebrating last week's Supreme Court decision protecting their community and their bees from environmental hazards, including glyphosate, a toxicherbicide.

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Land conflicts between settlers and Miskito communities on Nicaragua's North Atlantic coast left at least 10 dead in September, and more this month.

ELAW partner Lottie Cunningham Wren, a Miskito attorney, is working with community members to end the conflict.

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Eugene Talk show host Sam Evans from Nonprofit Eugene set up shop in our conference room yesterday and interviewed ELAW Communications Director Maggie Keenan and ELAW partner Laura Palmese, a former ELAW Fellow, from Honduras.

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India's unique environmental court -- the National Green Tribunal -- continues to make waves taking on egregious environmental abuses, including tanneries in Kanpur that have dumped untreated waste into the Ganges for decades.

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More than 10 years ago, ELAW partner Eduardo Salazar and his organization Aja!  came to the aid of a farming community in Murcia whose orchards on the Mediterranean Coast were threatened by a 3,500 unit housing development.  The housing project also threatened Roman ruins.

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Egyptians are concerned that their government is moving forward, without citizen input, to allow multinational cement corporations to switch from clean burning gas to polluting coal-fired kilns.

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"Lawyers around the world are galvanizing to seek climate justice." writes Jennifer Gleason in today's Climate Dialogue series at the London-based Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.

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Remote rivers in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains are some of the most beautiful in the world.  Sadly, these rivers are being targeted by corrupt investors who are installing small hydropower projects that are reducing rivers to a trickle, stranding fish.

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ELAW was splashed across the cover of yesterday's Eugene Register-Guard, announcing our new home.

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The Defenders: Eugene Environmental Law Advocates Move to Historic Home

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You're invited to an ELAW Open House & Pearl District Block Party

ELAW Advocate, Summer 2015

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A terrible injustice is unfolding in Mexico.  Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda Sánchez, a young human rights and environmental lawyer, was imprisoned without bail on July 22 while working to defend the Nahua people in Jalisco State.

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Great news!  India has shelved plans for a massive expansion of one of India's largest coal mines, which would have forced the relocation of 17 villages and impacted 135 schools and 90 public health centers.

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ELAW Fellows from Honduras and Germany are busy this summer learning about waste management in Lane County and environmental tribunals around the world.

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ELAW partners at the Centre for Environmental Rights are working to stop the sprawl of open-pit coal mines in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province grasslands, bordering Swaziland and Mozambique.

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Small hydropower plants in Ukraine's Carpathian Mountains are depriving communities of water.  ELAW is working with partners at Environment-People-Law (EPL) to hold the Ministry of Environment accountable.

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ELAW Staff Scientist Meche Lu traveled to Guatemala recently to help ELAW partners at the Environmental and Water Law Alliance (ADA2) raise awareness about the destruction of the Motagua River, and engage citizens and government authorities in conservation strategies.

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ELAW welcomes Paul Zepeda Castro from Honduras! Paul is an attorney volunteering with the Instituto de Derecho Ambiental de Honduras (IDAMHO). ELAW has worked with IDAMHO for many years, and we are excited to support Paul's efforts protecting the environment in Honduras.

ELAW eBulletin ELAW Staff Scientist Meche Lu was in Peru yesterday, sharing her expertise with leading non-profit organizations that are assessing the impacts of a new law that fast tracks oil, mining, and other projects, at the expense of the environment and citizens' rights. Meche was beamed in from her desk here in Eugene, saving costly airfare and the associated greenhouse gas emissions.

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Last week, ELAW's Pedro León was invited to speak about protecting the climate through law at a seminar hosted by the Supreme Court of Mexico's Human Rights Office.

Protecting the Environment Through Law in Honduras

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Irene Fugara returned home to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, last month.  Dar is Africa's third fastest growing city.

"We struggle with polluting industries and poor waste management," says Irene, Staff Attorney at the Lawyers' Environmental Action Team.

During her ELAW Fellowship, Irene learned about model waste management laws and practices around the world, and explored how Lane County treats solid waste and wastewater.

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ELAW Scientist Mark Chernaik traveled to Victoria, BC, last week to serve as expert witness for citizens calling for cleaner air in Kitimat.

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Olena Kravch enko visited Eugene this week.  Olena is the Executive Director of Environment-People-Law, Ukraine's leading public interest environmental law organization.  ELAW has worked with EPL for many years to conserve biodiversity, protect forests, and hold polluters accountable.

Environmental Heroes Come to Eugene

ELAW eBulletin Prakash Mani Sharma is a tireless environmental advocate for communities in Nepal. Prakash and his organization, the Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public) have fought for decades to protect Nepal's unique landscapes, including the glaciers of Mount Everest, the sacred Bagmati River, and Kathmandu's Balkhu -- one of the few public parks in the densely populated capital city.

ELAW eBulletin Communities in Veracruz, Mexico, are celebrating a federal court ruling that protects local water supplies from three mini hydro power projects proposed for the Jalacingo River. The plants would have altered the river's course to generate power for industry and disrupted traditional water systems, including freshwater springs.

ELAW eBulletin The ELAW network is built on personal bonds, forged over many years. Today, we honor Calvin Sandborn who we have worked with for years to win justice for British Columbia First Nations and communities across Canada.

ELAW eBulletin Last week, Erica Goode at The New York Times reported on the struggle to save a threatened and curious creature: "With its scaly exterior, peculiar body shape and propensity for rolling into an armored ball when threatened, the pangolin has invited comparison to the artichoke and the pine cone."

ELAW eBulletin Jamaica's infamous Riverton City Dump, the only authorized dump for the capital city of Kingston, caught fire March 11, sending hundreds to the hospital and closing 50 schools and over 30 businesses. The Riverton dump burns regularly, but the March fire was of historic proportions.