Project
Photo: Alejandro Balaguer / Fundación Albatros MediaVictory: Panama Bay is Legally Protected
Panama Bay, one of the world’s most important nesting and roosting sites for migratory birds, is now permanently protected, thanks in part to AIDA’s expertise in international law.
The bay supports endangered species, including jaguars and loggerhead turtles, as well as the vast majority of the country’s fishing industry. Its coastal mangroves capture 50 times more carbon pollution than a tropical forest of similar size. Mangroves also protect coastal communities from storm surges that grow in severity as the climate warms. Panama has already lost 75 percent of its mangroves.
In 2012 tourism developers had secured a Supreme Court decision overturning the National Environmental Authority’s decision to protect the bay as a wildlife refuge.
AIDA worked with the Environmental Advocacy Center (CIAM), a Panamanian environmental law organization, to defend Panama Bay’s protected status. We submitted a brief containing arguments based on international law. We made analogies between Panama Bay and Las Baulas National Marine Park in Costa Rica. In a legal case about Las Baulas, a balancing test found that the public right to a healthy environment outweighed the interests of tourism developers.
Then, on February 2, 2015—World Wetlands Day—Panama passed a law creating Panama Bay Wetland Wildlife Refuge. The law emphasizes the importance of an ecosystem approach to management and the rational use of wetlands, as described in the Ramsar Convention.
AIDA and CIAM will continue working to see that the law is implemented properly and to ensure the protection of Panama Bay wetlands.
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In May 2016, the IACHR required the Peruvian State to protect the life and integrity of 14 additional people affected by the heavy pollution of La Oroya’s metal smelter. Just last week, medical examinations began to evaluate the levels of heavy metals in the beneficiaries. La Oroya, Peru. Last week 7 residents of the city of La Oroya were tested for concentrations of heavy metals in their bodies resulting from long exposure to toxic air pollution from the local metal smelter. The tests come five months after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requested that the State extends precautionary measures granted in 2007, increasing the number of beneficiaries from 65 to 79. In May, the Commission urged the State to take necessary measures to protect the life and personal integrity of the 14 additional residents of La Oroya. The measures include “conducting the necessary medical assessments to determine the levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic in the blood in order to provide medical attention in accordance with applicable international standards.” Following pressure from civil society organizations, medical evaluations were finally completed on seven of the new beneficiaries. In addition to testing for heavy metals, evaluations were also made in the areas of nutrition, dentistry, psychology, internal medicine, pulmonology and gastroenterology. The results should be processed by the Center for Occupational Health and Environmental Protection and delivered to the beneficiaries in a period of no more than 45 days. The Ministry of Health promised that those who require medical treatment will be attended to by specialists in Huancayo or Lima, as the Health Center of La Oroya doesn’t have the capacity to do so. The government also promised a new date for the measurement and evaluation of beneficiaries who couldn’t attend the first set of exams. On behalf of the organizations representing the victims, we hope this is the first step towards full compliance with the precautionary measures requested by the Commission. The measures request not only testing, but also specialized medical treatment and appropriate follow-up with each of the beneficiaries—those included in the original 2007 measures, whose protection remains in force, as well as those included in the extension granted this year. “Despite the fact that the precautionary measures were issued nearly 10 years ago—calling for urgent actions to protect the health of beneficiaries—they have not yet been fully implemented. For years the health problems of the beneficiaries have not been properly cared for,” said Christian Huaylinos, attorney with the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH). The State must urgently address the condition of health services in La Oroya. The local health center is operating in a state of crisis, in a place that has been declared uninhabitable by the National Institute of Civil Defense. It has only five doctors for 66,000 people in La Oroya and in the surrounding Yauli province. “La Oroya’s structural problems with health and the environment must be solved urgently,” said María José Veramendi Villa, attorney with the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense. “The Commission must immediately issue its final report on this case, which was first presented nearly a decade ago. The victims have been waiting all this time for justice. If the State is truly committed to the people of La Oroya, that commitment must be shown through full compliance with the eventual recommendations of the Commission.”
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“Wake up humanity, there is no time left!” Berta Cáceres, Goldman Prize acceptance speech, 2015 By María José Veramendi Villa (originally published in Disrupt&Innovate) Being an environmental human rights defender in Latin America is not an easy task. On the contrary, it is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have. Whether you belong to an indigenous, afro-descendant, or peasant community, whether you are an independent activist or affiliated with a civil society organisation, you are at risk. In its most recent report, On Dangerous Ground, Global Witness documented 2015 as the worst year on record for killings of land and environmental activists.[1] The report documented 185 killings in 16 countries, making Brazil (50 killings), Colombia (26 killings), Peru (12 killings), and Nicaragua (12 killings) the most dangerous in Latin America.[2] Unfortunately, the murder of environmental defenders represents a tragic end of the road of a larger problem. We, as a society, all want economic and social progress and governments are mostly elected on this promise. However, increasingly States and various private actors are routinely complicit in actions that aim to silence legitimate voices and the work of environmental defenders. Threats, harassment, and campaigns to discredit or criminalize take a toll on the work of environmental defenders, who end up spending significant time defending themselves before often-complicit criminal justice systems, or even physically protecting themselves from attempts on their lives. Several United Nations Special Rapporteurs and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have recognised the important role that environmental defenders play in our societies and, as such, have recommended that States protect them. Nevertheless, the level of danger has continued to rise. Environmental defenders such as Berta Cáceres, whose lives should be protected by precautionary measures recommended by the Commission, continue being threatened or murdered in plain view of authorities — often with the complicity of a State. The Yanacocha mining company keeps harassing Máxima Acuña with the intent of forcing her out of her house to make way for the Conga Mining project, even after a Peruvian Court determined that she had not violated the company’s property rights. In La Oroya, a Peruvian Andean city, a metallurgical complex has operated since 1922. Dozens of victims of toxic pollution have been struggling for years to defend their health and environment, and keep seeking remedy in national and international courts. Their struggle has been plagued by attacks and campaigns to discredit them and the organizations that have assumed their legal representation. They have been labeled “anti-mining” and “anti-development,” harassed in the streets, and intimidated with hanging dead dogs in front of their houses. The list of such incidents in Latin America just keeps getting longer. Poorly planned and developed mines, dams, and other infrastructure projects are linked to them. As members of societies that strive for economic and social development, we need to stop pretending that these and other countless attacks against environmental defenders do not happen or have no impact on the financial, political and social costs that we all end up paying eventually. The costs will come and they will be high. Governments need to wake up now and take action to defend the defenders. There is no time left! To the memory of those who have died defending something that should be precious to all but somehow is cared for by a few: our earth. [1] Global Witness. On Dangerous Ground, June 2016, p. 4. [2] Global Witness. On Dangerous Ground, June 2016, pp. 8 -9.
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Researchers from the Washington State University found that the world’s reservoirs generate 1.3 percent of all greenhouse gases produced by humankind. The finding confirms once more than large dams are unsustainable energy sources that cause great harm to the climate. Seattle, United States. An important new study by researchers at the Washington State University found that large dams are an “underestimated” source of greenhouse gas. The findings show that all reservoirs, not only those built in tropical zones, release far greater quantities of emissions into the atmosphere than previously believed. According to the study, gases are released from the decomposition of organic matter after artificial reservoirs flood natural areas. In fact, over the course of a year reservoirs were found to generate 1.3 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases (more than all of Canada). Eighty percent of those emissions were methane, a pollutant 34 times stronger than carbon dioxide. “Across the Americas, governments are pushing for the construction of hundreds of new large dams, arguing that dams are clean energy and will help to mitigate climate change,” explained Astrid Puentes Riaño, co-director of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA). “It’s become increasingly clear that large dams are more of a problem than a solution. World leaders must urgently start to plan and implement alternative energy solutions in order to achieve real progress in the fight against climate change.” Along with a coaltion of civil society organizations, AIDA, Amazon Watch and International Rivers have been insisting for years that operating large hydroelectric projects—such as the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil—causes severe damage to the environment, the climate, and the rights of affected communities. “Large dams are one of the most significant causes of environmental destruction in the Amazon,” said Leila Salazar-López, executive director of Amazon Watch. “In addition to emiting methane, they destroy biodiversity and the ancestral forest of thousands of indigenous and traditional communities that have lived for centuries from river ecosystems. It is imperative to calculate the true costs of large dams to understand all their impacts, and avoid causing more harm than good.” As organizations working to promote real solutions to climate change, we are committed to sharing scientific evidence about the harms of large dams to governments, international bodies, and financial institutions. "The new findings lay to rest the myth of hydropower as a clean source of electricity and underline why large hydropower should not receive climate finance," said Kate Horner, executive director of International Rivers. The results of Washington State University's study must be considered in the inventory of emissions that contribute to climate change, as well as in the execution of program and plans aimed at solving energy needs. For more information consult: Washington State University's study. Washington State University’s press release on the study. Short video from Astrid Puentes Riaño, AIDA co-director, with a brief explanation of the research and why it is important. Our Manifesto on 10 reasons why climate initiatives should not include large dams. An open letter to governments, international institutions and financial mechanisms to stop considering large dams as clean energy and to implement real solutions to climate change.
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