ELAW Bulletin

Work to protect the human right to clean water and sanitation in Mexico, and across the region, is making strides through an alliance of environmental and human rights defenders -- Agua, Nuestro Derecho (AND; Water, Our Right).

ELAW Bulletin

ELAW partners at the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) announced a stunning victory Wednesday, protecting a critical coral reef system in Veracruz from short-sighted plans to expand the Veracruz Port.

ELAW Bulletin
Mexico’s Veracruz Reef System, a national park and RAMSAR site in the Gulf of Mexico, has suffered because of the expansion of the Veracruz Port. ELAW has joined partners at the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA) to help protect and restore this critical ecosystem.

ELAW Bulletin

ELAW is pleased to announce that the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) has approved long overdue updates to the standards that govern wastewater discharge in Mexico.

ELAW Bulletin

The Governor of Jalisco has suspended construction of the contested Tala landfill in Guadalajara following weeks of protest by local residents and 'ejidatarios' who collectively hold the land, and a technical opinion of the authorization of the landfill prepared by ELAW at the request of our partners at Instituto de Derecho Ambiental (IDEA).

ELAW Bulletin

Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula, and its freshwater cenotes, coral reefs, mangroves, and stunning biodiversity is under threat from short-sighted development.

ELAW Bulletin

Corals, communities, and coastlines in Mesoamerica are suffering the effects of failed and inadequate wastewater treatment. ELAW has been working with partners in Mexico to protect water quality and is now expanding across the region, to clean up water supplies and hold polluters accountable.

ELAW Bulletin

ELAW is pleased to share some highlights of our work together this year.

ELAW Bulletin

Iniciativa Ciudadana y Profesional para la Defensa Jurídica del Litoral (Prolitoral), defended by ELAW partner Dr. Eduardo Salazar Ortuño, celebrate the hard-won victory! Prolitoral is a collective formed by Ecologistas en Acción, the Asociación de Naturalistas del Sureste (ANSE), Amacora and other environmental and legal professionals.

ELAW Bulletin

This year, Earth Day comes as the COVID-19 pandemic rages around the world. All of us on the ELAW US team are working together from home and staying safe.

We all need clean fresh water, but poor waste management, polluting industries, paving wetlands, and the climate
crisis are leading to severe water shortages in India, South Africa, and beyond. All over the world, citizens are speaking
out for clean fresh water.

ELAW Bulletin

Last week, ELAW partners in South Africa shared their latest victory: South Africa’s Constitutional Court slammed one door shut on plans to build a new coal mine inside an Mpumalanga Protected Area.

ELAW Bulletin

Communities in the Mexican port city of Veracruz are celebrating a decision this week by the state environmental authority (SEMARNAT) that shelved short-sighted plans for a new landfill that threatened wetlands and a biological corridor.

ELAW Bulletin

"Environmental Policy and Human Rights," was hosted by the Ombudsman for Human Rights of the People of Oaxaca, in collaboration with civil society groups, including the Mexican Council for Sustainable Forestry and Environmental Law and Policy.

ELAW Bulletin
ELAW Fellow Damaris Santanta returned to Guadalajara on Saturday and  immediately returned to the front lines, defending urban forests and indigenous rights with the legal team at Instituto de Derecho Ambiental (IDEA).

ELAW Bulletin

ELAW partners at Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental (CEMDA) are challenging the environmental impact assessments for the Veracruz Port expansion because they lack adequate and complete scientific information. ELAW Staff Scientist Dr. Heidi Weiskel has been working closely with CEMDA to challenge this port project, which threatens the largest coral ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico, the Veracruz Reef System National Park.

ELAW Bulletin

We are pleased to announce that our photo essay collection is now available online!  Enjoy 12 inspiring stories of communities around the world fighting for a healthy environment, and winning.

ELAW Bulletin

Lake Chapala is under siege from polluting industries, agricultural run-off, and over-appropriation of water for industrial use -- shortchanging residents and visitors. IDEA has worked tirelessly, for decades, to make community voices heard in efforts to protect the watershed.

ELAW Bulletin

Good news from Mexico - the Dragon Mart development project has been canceled forever!

ELAW Bulletin

ELAW partners achieved tremendous victories in 2016.
We will continue our work fighting for the environment and human rights around the world in 2017, and look forward to more victories for the planet and communities.

Moving Beyond Coal, Winter 2017

ELAW Bulletin

We are thrilled to report that Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda Sánchez, a young Mexican human rights and environmental lawyer, has been freed from detention.  Eduardo has been imprisoned on bogus charges since July 22, when he was seized while working to defend the Nahua people in Jalisco State.

ELAW Advocate, Autumn 2015

ELAW eBulletin
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.

ELAW Advocate, Summer 2015

ELAW eBulletin

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.

ELAW eBulletin

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.

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 ELAW partners at the Mexican Environmental Law Center (CEMDA) won a great victory when Mexico's environmental protection agency (PROFEPA) canceled the massive Dragon Mart development near Cancún, and ordered developers to restore damaged ecosystems.

ELAW eBulletin Scientists at the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide use Google Earth to "ground truth" environmentally destructive proposals across the world, writes Camilla Mortensen in today's Eugene Weekly.

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 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.

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...

ELAW eBulletin ELAW Fellows and visitors from five continents have come together in Eugene to work with the ELAW team. Read about the inspiring work of partners from Uganda, Panama, Turkey, and Mongolia in the current Eugene Weekly.

ELAW Press ELAW Fellows and visitors from five continents have come together in Eugene to work with the ELAW team. Read about the inspiring work of partners from Uganda, Panama, Turkey, and Mongolia in the current Eugene Weekly.

ELAW eBulletin
We are pleased to announce 10 years of collaboration with Defensa Ambiental del Noroeste (DAN) -- an inspiring organization of dedicated environmental leaders working to protect Mexico's Baja California. DAN attorney Maria Llano stopped by our office last week to celebrate our partnership and discuss the threat of an enormous open pit gold mine proposed for Sierra La Laguna Biosphere Reserve.