Latest News

ELAW Bulletin A long-fought battle to protect the water supply of Mehdiganj was won last week when Coca-Cola abandoned its newly built, expanded bottling plant near Varanasi, India.

ELAW Bulletin Congratulations to ELAW advocate Alejandra Serrano and her team at the Mexican Environmental Law Center for their work defending communities and Mexico's Riviera Maya!

ELAW partners with Belize Institute of Environmental Law and Policy and Centre for Creative Leadership hold Leadership Training for young adults.

ELAW Bulletin FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Status of Crimea's Natural Reserves Uncertain Eugene, OR, August 20, 2014 -- Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide partners in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of protected natural areas in Crimea. "The status of Charivna Havan National Park, Yalta Mountain Forest Reserve, Cape Martyan Reserve, and three other natural reserves are uncertain," says Olena Kravchenko, Executive Director of Environment-People-Law, based in Lviv, Ukraine.

ELAW partners in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of protected natural areas in Crimea.

ELAW Bulletin The Nicaraguan government has revealed the route for a canal it plans to build across the country with help from a Hong Kong-based company. The proposed canal would stretch 173 miles, about three times the length of the Panama Canal. It would originate at Punta Gorda in the Caribbean, pass through Lake Nicaragua, and end at Brito, a port on the Pacific Ocean.

ELAW Bulletin Last weekend, Live Mint & Wall Street Journal celebrated the work of three ELAW partners -- Norma and Claude Alvares at the Goa Foundation and Ritwick Dutta at the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE). This dynamic trio and other inspired advocates in India co-hosted our 2012 ELAW Annual Meeting.

The Indian press celebrates the work of three ELAW partners -- Norma and Claude Alvares at the Goa Foundation and Ritwick Dutta at the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE)

ELAW partners in Panama have presented a formal petition to Panama’s National Environmental Authority (ANAM), asking it to revoke a resolution that limits to 10% the environmental flow of all the rivers in Panama.

ELAW Bulletin Proposed large-scale mining is raising concerns among residents of remote communities in Ecuador. Copper mining is underway, new mines are proposed, and citizens fear their voices will not be heard.

ELAW Bulletin Mangroves play a critical role buffering coastal communities against flooding and storms and provide habitat for thousands of species of birds and marine animals. Recent evidence suggests that mangroves sequester carbon very effectively and healthy mangroves could help protect our climate.

ELAW Bulletin ELAW Board Member and mining expert Glenn Miller traveled to Panama and Honduras last week to collaborate with ELAW partners at the Environmental Advocacy Center (Centro de Incidencia Ambiental, CIAM) and the Environmental Law Institute (Instituto de Derecho Ambiental de Honduras, IDAMHO) to protect communities and the environment from mining industry abuses.

ELAW Bulletin The Goat Islands, adjoining mangroves and at least one fish sanctuary in the Portland Bight Protected Area may be destroyed to make way for a mega trans-shipment port, proposed by the international contractor China Harbour Engineering Company. Diana McCaulay, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust, writes: "ELAW is helping us with legal research to build the arguments for our Access to Information case, to get critical information on the benefits of this proposal to Jamaica.

ELAW Bulletin With generous support from the Ford Foundation, ELAW partnered with Greenwatch in Uganda to host a workshop for lawyers from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. The aim was to help young lawyers gain the skills they need to defend the rights of communities threatened by extractive industries.

ELAW partners in India urge re-location of Ultra Mega coal-fired power plant proposed for Cheyyur, Tamil Nadu

ELAW Bulletin ELAW partners in India have sent good news! The Chennai Bench of the National Green Tribunal has shelved plans for a private airport in Kerala that threatened key wetlands.

ELAW Bulletin ELAW Staff Scientist Heidi Weiskel recently traveled to Haiti to help partners at L'Association Haitienne de Droit de l'Environnement (AHDEN) work with communities in and around Caracol, one of the towns near a new marine protected area (MPA), Les Trois Baies.

ELAW partner Elifuraha Laltaika and ELAW Director John Bonine speak at Tumaini University Makumira

ELAW partner Calvin Sandborn announces that the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Centre has released the latest in a series of reports on regulating fracking.

ELAW partners at Adam Teva V’Din report on recycling efforts in Israel.

ELAW Bulletin Holbox Island The proposed "Ensenada" development, which threatened the stunning landscape and rich fisheries of Quintana Roo's Holbox Island, has been shelved. Alejandra Serrano and her colleagues at the Mexican Center for Environmental Law have worked since 2012 to protect islanders from this out-sized tourism scheme.

Earth Day call to action by ELAW parters at Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association

ELAW Bulletin "I never intended to become a lawyer," Fernando told me. As a child, Fernando read a marine mammal encyclopedia and dreamed of becoming a marine biologist. His father persuaded him that law was a practical tool and besides, Mexico City was far from the ocean...

Saying No to Coal

ELAW Bulletin China faces enormous environmental challenges. Ashley White, contract attorney, is helping the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW) reach out to new partners in China to build the worldwide corps of grassroots advocates.

ELAW partners at Adam Teva V’Din join call for an end to monopoly in the natural gas exploration sector.

ELAW Bulletin The Grasberg mine, one of the world's largest gold mines, is located near Tembagapura, West Papua. The mine displaced the Amungme people in 1973. Since then, local rivers and springs used for drinking water have been contaminated and the mine has destroyed the top of a mountain the Amungme hold sacred.

ELAW partner Gerthie Mayo-Anda undaunted by risks

ELAW Bulletin India's National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered the inspection of 956 factories that release effluents into the India's most sacred waterway.

Australian government risks undermining environmental regulation.

ELAW Bulletin Last week, ELAW partners in the Philippines rejoiced when local government officials shelved plans to allow a company to dump coal ash on beachfront property in Naga City.

The Great Barrier Reef is threatened by a coal port.