FIMA's Andres Pirazzoli visits Chile's Torres del Paine National Park.

Protecting Patagonia 12345

Chile is facing an energy crisis, but is damming wild rivers the solution?

ELAW is working to protect the heart of Patagonia from a Spanish company's plans to dam the Baker, Pascua and El Salto rivers for a hydroelectric scheme. The proposed $2.5 billion HidroAysén project would flood 22,000 acres and require the world's longest transmission line -- crossing national parks, wildlife protected areas and forest reserves.

Baker River, Chile
The Baker River would be dammed in a proposed hydroelectric scheme.

ELAW has teamed up with lawyers at Fiscalia del Medio Ambiente (FIMA) in Santiago to protect Patagonia's wild rivers by strengthening Chilean law to encourage more generation of electricity from renewable sources.

Read more in the Spring 2008 ELAW Advocate.

Protecting the
Ecuadorean Amazon


ELAW partner Pablo Fajardo on the Aguarico River with a villager from Secoya

ELAW partner Pablo Fajardo on the Aguarico River with a villager from Secoya.

ELAW congratulates Pablo Farjardo who won a 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize External link; opens in new window for his work with Luis Yanza to hold oil companies accountable for decades of polluting activities in the Ecuadorean Amazon.

Read more...

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CALAS' guide to public participation

From a guide to public participation produced by the Center for Environmental, Legal and Social Action (CALAS) of Guatemala.

Community Legal Education

ELAW partners publish guides to citizen participation; train community "paralegals" to represent community interests in administrative, legislative, and judicial proceedings; and empower citizens to play a role in decisions that impact their lives.
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