Environmental Lawyers Conference and Workshop 2005

Proponent: Environmental Legal Assistance Center
Amount: 150,000.00
Project Start Date: October 17, 2005
Project End Date: December 31, 2015
Grant Type: Environmental Defense
Area: National
Grant Status: Past

Project Goals and Objectives

The conference aims to: 1. update lawyers on recent legal developments on environmental laws; 2. share environmental cases and challenges, and identify factors leading to a successful litigation of environmental cases; 3. present the workshop results of the Paralegal and Law Enforcement Conference to be held on September 28-30, 2005 on the issues and challenges faced by community and DENR law enforcers in the enforcement of laws and litigation of environmental cases; 4. present the results of the evaluation of the Environmental Defense Project: 5. identify initiatives to address the challenges already presented by community law enforcers, lawyers and the Endefense Project Evaluation, identify gaps, and draft a legal response action plan to support and strengthen community law enforcement and environmental litigation; 6. create an initial database of environmental lawyers and cases; and 7. publish the conference proceedings.

Outputs and Outcomes

More than 80 lawyers participated in the conference. Presentations on the state of the Philippine environment and on the recent developments on environmental laws were given. Environmental cases and challenges were shared and factors leading to a successful litigation of environmental cases were identified during a workshop. Workshop results of the Paralegal and Law Enforcement Conference on the issues and challenges faced by community and DENR law enforcers in the enforcement of laws and litigation of environmental cases were also presented, as well as the results of the evaluation of the Environmental Defense Project. Initiatives necessary to address the challenges presented were discussed and gaps and recommended actions to support and strengthen law enforcement and environmental litigation were identified in another workshop. Participants agreed to be included in the initial database of environmental lawyers, and even after the event, letters requesting to be included in the database were still received.