Practitioner's Journal: Protecting Water Resources in Argentina
By Sue Mahony, Senior Legal Officer, NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Australia. Email: Sue.Mahony@environment.nsw.gov.au

As a “holiday” from my job as prosecutor with the Department of Environment and Conservation in Sydney Australia, I volunteered to work for 2 months with CEDHA, the Centre for Human Rights and Environment in Cordoba, Argentina (in the centre of Argentina). The NGO is headed by a Daniel Taillant who used to work for the World Bank, and Romina Picolotti who formerly worked at the Inter American Commission for Human Rights. They are the most sophisticated NGO when it comes to using international for and challenging to international financial institutions.

Shortly after my arrival in Argentina, I traveled to Colonia, Uruguay, just across the bay from Buenos Aires. I learned that there was a high profile political debate between the two countries because Uruguay had approved the construction of two paper mills to be built by European companies on the banks of the Uruguay River which forms the border with Argentina. The combined mills would be the world’s largest and discharge directly to the river in an area that is important for fishing and has many tourist resorts. The smells alone, not to mention the chemical contamination of the river, would be enough to kill the tourism industry. The proponents of the paper mills were companies from Spain and Finland respectively. The former had been convicted contaminating the local river in Galicia, Spain for 30 years and 6 directors went to jail. Both companies proposed to use technology that will shortly be outlawed in Europe. Both projects were seeking significant funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank.

CEDHA was contacted by the Governor of Entre Rios, the Argentine province that abuts the river, and he became our first named client in the legal campaign to oppose the projects. Several of us from CEDHA drove 11 hours across the country to meet with the assembly of local NGOs (each with the their own, sometimes conflicting views) who were mobilizing protests twice weekly which often involved cutting traffic on the international bridge across the river that joins the two countries. We also had to win their confidence that CEDHA, who would prepare the challenges without charge, were more experienced than other lawyers who wanted to charge significant fees. The meeting was a success.

The IFC has established a Compliance Advisory Ombudsman, so it was my task to review the environmental impact statements for the 2 projects (large and in Spanish) and prepare a report to the Ombudsman (in English, as its head is from PNG), pointing out what was missing from the EIS (eg impacts in Argentina), scientifically incorrect or dangerous (that the local towns will take their water supply downstream from where the mills discharge), procedurally incorrect (the manner in which “public consultation” was done) and the divergences from the IFC’s procedural rules regarding EIA and public consultation.

Over 39,000 people signed a petition that accompanied the report that was sent to the Ombudsman. Even the President of Argentina issued a statement in support of our challenge. The Ombudsman accepted the complaint and visited the site of the proposed paper mills within weeks. In November 2005 the Ombudsman issued a preliminary report which was critical of the failure of the projects to take account of transboundary effects, that consultation presented the project as a fait accompli, that the combined effects of the two projects was not adequately assessed, and that the EIS’s did not adequately consider effects on the area’s agriculture and tourism industries. In relation to the IFC’s role, the Ombudsman criticized that the IFC had put the EISs on public display and commenced its disclosure period without ensuring the that the EIS’s were adequate, and that its website had maintained that the projects would be presented to its board in October 2005 even when this was not the case. The Ombudsman recommended a long list of further steps be taken with the result that independent scientific reports of the likely effects of the projects have been commissioned and consideration of financing of the project by the IFC is frozen, at least for the time being.

In parallel, a colleague prepared a submission to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights alleging that there was an imminent danger that the human rights of adjoining residents would be affected by the projects. At last report, the Commission was considering whether to accept this complaint.

The issue was in the local and national papers daily. Working on the project felt useful, important, and relevant. Would I spend another well-earned vacation in this way? Absolutely!

Environmental Law Training Focuses on Latin America and Caribbean

The United Nations Environment Program, with the support of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, hosted The Second Regional Latin American and Caribbean Training Programme on Environmental Law and Policy in Panama City, Panama, from July 25th to August 5th. The two week Programme, which touched on over twenty subjects and a dozen multilateral environmental agreements, had three goals: (i) to stimulate discussion among the participants on environmental law, policy development, and application; (ii) to promote interest in the compliance with, and enforcement of, multilateral environmental agreements; and (iii) to improve the participants' ability to develop initiatives and make decisions.

Sixty-two environmental law professionals participated, including judges, parliamentarians, government officials, local authorities, as well as representatives of civil society from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO). A third training programme is in the planning stages.

More information on the training is available from UNEP's Environmental Law Programme.

Report Details Illegal Logging Crisis in Honduras

A new report, The Illegal Logging Crisis in Honduras, details how United States and European Union imports of illegal Honduran wood increase poverty, fuel corruption and devastate forests and communities. The result of a year-long undercover investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the report names the U.S. firms, including Home Depot, that profit from the trade, and offers recommendations to the Honduran and U.S. government on how to address this problem.

A copy of the Illegal Logging Crisis in Honduras report is available from Environmental Investigation Agency.

First Manual on Environmental Law in Central America Released

The Manual of Environmental Law in Central America (Manual de Derecho Ambiental para Centroamérica) was recently published, with support from IUCN, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and graduate students at Costa Rica University.

The book covers a range of topics, from general concepts of environmental law and its practical application, to the typical environmental issues of the Central American region - like environmental vulnerability, natural disasters, public participation or environmental aspects of trade. The themes discussed in the manual include water, biodiversity, trade in endangered species, the law of the sea, climate change, trade and the environment, forests, and environmental services.

It is hoped that the publication will reach a large group of people interested in the environmental law and policies of the region. According to Grethel Aguilar, co-editor of the publication, “this manual not only discusses the realities of a region that has just started to reap its first results and lessons on environmental law, but also provides a technical contribution, which helps to reflect and support the efforts made in Central America to implement commitments in the field of the environment in the region.”

Click here for a copy of the Manual in English. Click here for a Spanish copy.

Course Addresses Environmental Law in Mercosur Region

The Instituto de Derecho y Economía Ambiental (IDEA) and IUCN conducted a specialized course on International Environmental Law from 19 to 22 September at the Mercosur Permanent Tribunal in Asuncion, Paraguay. The course was supported by the French Cooperation Agency, the Catholic University of Asuncion, and the Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The course's objective was to promote an understanding of the critical environmental legal issues for Mercosur, or Southern Cone, region. Mercosur is a trading zone among Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, founded in 1991 by the Treaty of Asuncion, which was later amended and updated by the 1995 Treaty of Ouro Preto. Its purpose is to promote free trade and movement of goods and peoples, skills and money, between these countries.

A report on the course "Derecho Ambiental en el Mercosur" (Spanish only) is available from IUCN.