Ambientalist.com

They say things come in three’s. Usually when someone makes that remark it pertains to bad events, but in this case the month of July proved to be quite a time in North America. Rarely can you link Mexico, Canada and the United States for having made substantial strides in the legal realm when it comes to corporate accountability but this time they have done it. Continue reading “Trifecta of Corporate Accountability in North America”

Posted originally on ELAW Spotlight December 15, 2010

It was Jeanette’s fault – that is what I think.

There is strange feeling I get when I become sleep deprived. It’s something between hunger and the shakes, which you cannot truly put your finger on, until days later.  You see, dear Jeanette Noack, a marvelous attorney from Guatemala, shared a room with me in Punta Leona, Costa Rica. No, she did not snore or talk in her sleep. The truth is, we would meet in our room, after the day’s meetings, work groups and activities, and proceed to talk and laugh until 2 a.m. Was this done on purpose? Obviously not. We had spent the day talking, sharing and discussing stories with many other lovely attorneys we know. But something would happen after we would come in the door, the exhaustion lifted, and we would share the day, look at photos, laugh while we sent emails to catch up with those absent and of course, lose track of time. Continue reading “Sometimes sleep is overrated”

Sunday:

After a beautiful walk through sections of Carara National Park in Costa Rica, where members of the ELAW network crouched and craned to get a glimpse of brilliant scarlet macaws flying overhead or nesting above the luscious canopy of this rainforest, we arrived in Puntarenas.

We were all a bit damp but proud to show off our muddy shoes before we sat together for lunch outdoors amid evermore beautiful and lush vegetation. Then –not surprisingly, but always impressive,  we all go straight to work, the 2010 ELAW Annual Meeting has official begun. Our hosts from Costa Rica have provided a great setting for this meeting, and we are all grateful to be in this place, more so because we are happy to see familiar faces like Ipat Luna who came from the Philippines, Charlie Hopkins from the UK, Lottie Cunningham from Nicaragua, Mauro Figueiredo from Brazil and many more.

While several hours are spent discussing initial topics of interest it is not until much later when we are afforded some time to clean up a bit for dinner. The rain comes and goes and we are joined by Spider Monkeys who seem to even pose for photos.  As the day winds down we are able to catch up with old and new friends, yes to share more about work, but also life, just life.

Monday:

The morning differed for many in the group, as some enjoyed an excursion to go bird watching at 6am, others couldn’t help taking a dip in the ocean –all this before breakfast at 8am.  (I had mentioned we work and play hard).  Even so we were all sitting together by 9am to begin today’s work which didn’t conclude until 6:30pm. While computers were still on at the end of the day compiling notes to share with those absent from the meeting, others make the most of this time which seems to be flying by.

The murmur of voices goes from English to Spanish, and back again. Mixed conversations about law evolve into movies and politics, only to return to whatever legal dilemma someone just remembered from earlier today. Some are wet on their way to dinner, but content to have had those precious moments in the water. I’ll try to meet the early morning swimmers tomorrow.

Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

It has stopped raining and we are having our first hint of blue skies in days. I’ve been going through email and making sure my laptop is ready for travel. It is time for dear friends and environmental lawyers from around the world to come together for our next ELAW Annual Meeting. On this occasion we will meet in Costa Rica, at Punta Leona in the canton of Garabito in Puntarenas. Approximately 100 souls from 30 countries will be sitting together computers in hand as always, to share our latest news on environmental advocacy, litigation and deep struggles from the trenches.

These are the moments we crave for, to meet face to face after years of digital communication, of pdf attachments and legal memoranda. Yes Costa Rica is a beautiful place to meet, and there will be lovely opportunities to enjoy the fantastic landscape we will have to enjoy. But I know –and am quite sure– that conversations will drag on for hours on end, be it on sand or water or luscious green, about environmental law, about legal strategy and about how to improve the environment. For even though we will be encouraged to play, most of us will work just as hard or harder, precisely because we know that our work, from Kenya to Haiti and Malaysia to Spain has direct bearing on protecting stunning and fragile places such as this.

I look forward to sharing experiences from next week’s meeting.

Posted originally on ELAW Spotlight October 28, 2010

I am in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico working on a very large mesquite table that this office has inherited from its previous owner. The large beautiful wooden table which would take at least ten strong men to move sits in the middle of the office. There are lovely paintings and hand carved wooden masks on the walls from Mexico and Bolivia; art from Central and South America intermingles with the computers, files, phones, and printers, making this more than a welcoming place to work. This was the home of Dr. Raquel Gutiérrez Nájera, an environmental lawyer, professor, writer, theorist, and idol to many old and new activists in Mexico and abroad. She has provided this house to IDEA (Instituto de Derecho Ambiental), the public interest environmental law group which she founded in 1997. Now they have a rent free existence and the security to continue working in Jalisco, as well as other Mexican states. While her role at the organization has evolved, she is still acting President of the organization and plays key roles in important litigation efforts. Continue reading “Environment & Health inextricably linked”