News: ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYERS ARE BEST EQUIPPED WITH SKILLS OF ENVIRONMENT LITIGATION AND POLICY

Environmental Lawyers are best equipped with skills of environment litigation and policy

This was a training program run by the Environment Defenders Office (EDO) in Sydney, New South Wales. Its aim was to train environmental lawyers in the Pacific under its international training program to best equip them with the skills of environmental litigation and policy.

The PNG Eco-Forestry Forum legal officer Sathieshar Lane attended the three day training program starting on the May 24^th and ended on May 27^th 2010.

The three days were summarized in the following bullet points below;

Public Interest Environmental Law; under which they presented the role of EDO as a non-profit, independent community legal centre that helps individuals and community groups working to protect and build the natural environment and the functions within EDO.  Case Management; the casework guidelines that EDO uses to guide them decide which cases has merit and will impact on the law and the justice system in Australia.  The role of science in Environmental Law/ EIA; science plays an important role with most of the EDO cases.  The Policy Process; EDO frequently puts forward policy proposal suggesting ways that the law or policy can be improved.  Open Forum on “AusAID Land Reform; an open forum where discussions on land reform in the Pacific and Asia Pacific and the related issues.  Planning and coastal law; areas in the coastal management, policy and case studies where discussed in this session.  Meeting at the NSW Land and Environmental Court; this was to get the trainees familiarized with the court system which specializes and deals with issues surrounding the Land and Environment.

The final and last topic was Carbon Trading. She says that whilst undergoing the training she learnt that advocacy and campaigning was a very useful to use to achieve outcomes and results. She went on to conclude that this was one thing that PNG EFF has successfully used to lobby its ideas and objectives to key stakeholders in the forestry sector and as a result received desired outcomes.

The training itself gave me the opportunity to enhance and strengthen my case management and litigation skills as a lawyer. However, I would say the significance of the training was that participants came from almost all regions of the pacific to share their experience as environmental defenders. Many of the participants were senior lawyers who were able to share the challenges and achievements that they had faced over the years in their efforts to protect and conserve the environment.

“The training broaden my understanding of the Impacts of Climate Change and REDD within the Pacific Region as participate share their experiences. This was very rewarding for me personally as these issues were of great concern to EFF and PNG as a whole.  The training also enabled us to identify and establish networks amongst ourselves to help each other further the work of environmental lawyers in the Pacific.”

Ms. Lane says given another opportunity to attend such training in the future, she will not miss it. It is a “must go” for any lawyer interested in protecting the environment, she said.”

Left: Lawyers from the region in the Justice Chambers (Land and Environment Court of New South Wales).

Above: At the EDO National Conference, our Legal Officer Sathieshar Lane on the right and on the left is our Program Manager Mary Theresa-Boni (Former Board Member).