P.O. 316, Lviv, 79000

+380 32 225 76 82

office@epl.org.ua

EPL: Events and Announcements

6 June 2023 Destruction of the Kakhovka HPP: preliminary conclusions and possible consequences

Representatives of environmental civil society movement in Ukraine appeal to our colleagues in the area of environmental protection, international experts, institutions that aim to protect the environment, secretariats of international environmental conventions, authorized bodies, and individuals of the United Nations within their mandates and capabilities and request to respond to the latest act of ecocide…

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24 May 2023 Circular economy: faster steps are needed to achieve the EU’s circular economy goals

According to the European Commission’s revised Circular Economy Monitoring Framework1, published on 15 May 2023, the EU must continue its efforts to reduce consumption and reduce waste generation with the aim of achieving a more circular economy. The rate of increase in resource extraction is the main cause of the triple planetary crisis: climate change,…

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24 May 2023 G7 Leaders’ Statement on Ukraine

The leaders of the democratic world, G7, released a joint statement on Ukraine on May 19, 20231. At the meeting in Hiroshima (Japan), the G7 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the joint opposition to russia’s illegal, unjustifiable and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. They condemned russia’s manifest violation of the Charter of the United…

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19 May 2023 Integrated environmental permit: Czech experience and Ukraine’s intentions

  Recently, EPL representatives visited the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic where they learned about Czech experience of implementing IPPC/EID Directive that began in 2002 with the adoption of a separate law on integrated pollution prevention and control that entered into force in 2007. The procedure of issuance of an integrated environmental permit…

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4 May 2023 Environmental Inspectorate in the Czech Republic is an effective nature protection body that respects business

  During the visit of EPL representatives to the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic, the team members of the organization had the opportunity to thoroughly analyze the work of the Czech Environmental Inspectorate. Structure and directions of work The Czech Environmental Inspectorate (CEI) was founded in 1991 and has 13 offices: 1 central…

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4 May 2023 CONSERVATION OF NATURA-2000 SITES: CZECH EXPERIENCE

May 4, 2023   At the end of April, representatives of EPL had meetings with experts from the Ministry of Environment and the Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic. During these meetings we discussed the Nature Restoration Law1, which is the first comprehensive law in this direction across the continent….

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Ecoanalytics

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What kind of environmental damages can be recovered from the russian federation in court. What directions does the term “damage to the environment” cover?

For two years, Ukraine has been living in the regime of a full–scale war, which was started by the russian federation. We all sadly witness war–driven devastating damage to the Ukrainian environment and entire ecosystems that had been formed for hundreds and thousands of years, destruction of rare habitats and a variety of species of…

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The environment is a silent victim of the war in Ukraine without effective legal protection mechanisms

The environment is a silent victim of the war in Ukraine without effective legal protection mechanisms During 9 years of the russian federation’s war in Ukraine, the war brought not only direct threats to lives and health of Ukrainian citizens caused by explosions, destruction, shelling, detonation of mines and other types of hostile actions. As…

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About us

EPL is a public interest environmental law organization which since 1994 has been protecting environmental rights, supporting, restoring and improving the environment and providing legal help in protecting other human rights, especially those which overlap with environmental rights.

We care about environment in Ukraine and abroad and are concerned about all the risks, threats and dangers which may lead to deterioration of the environment.

At present environmental protection is the hottest problem of the humankind. There is a growing threat not only for human health and well-being but for existence of life on our planet in general.

Work of the organization is directed towards transformation of safe though often extremely polluted environment into favorable for life and health environment, preservation of biodiversity, protection of flora and fauna, stoppage of uncontrolled emissions and dumps of harmful substances into environment and elimination of other negative factors, fight with non-activity as for global environmental issues in general and climate change issues in particular.

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Updated documents at the EPL website

2 June 2023 CONSERVATION OF NATURA-2000 AREAs: Polish EXPERIENCE

  May 4, 2023 On April 28, EPL representatives had a meeting with experts of a Polish NGO Frank Bold Foundation1. Polish lawyers spoke about the system of managing the system and legal framework of NATURA-2000 sites, as well as various geoinformation databases. The website of the General Directorate for Environmental Protection has a special…

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29 May 2023 Рrotection of biodiversity and protected area of Ukraine

Case: Tashlytska Pumped Storage Hydro Station Region: Ukraine, Mykolaiv oblast, Yuzhnoukrainsk Essence of case: protection of biodiversity and protected area of Ukraine, protection of the right to safe and healthy environment; Parties: Residents of Mykolaiv and Mykolaiv oblast, regional-landscape park ”Granitno-stepove Pobuzhya” SE NNEC “Energoatom,” South-Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, Ministry of Fuel and Energy of…

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26 May 2023 Рrotection of biodiversity and protected area of Ukraine

Case: Tashlytska Pumped Storage Hydro Station Region: Ukraine, Mykolaiv oblast, Yuzhnoukrainsk Essence of case: protection of biodiversity and protected area of Ukraine, protection of the right to safe and healthy environment; Parties: Residents of Mykolaiv and Mykolaiv oblast, regional-landscape park ”Granitno-stepove Pobuzhya” SE NNEC “Energoatom,” South-Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant, Ministry of Fuel and Energy of…

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26 May 2023 Protection of valuable mountain range Svydovets

Region: Zakarpatya and Ivano-Frankivsk regions Essence of the case: Protection of valuable mountain range, glassier lakes, Emerald network site, wetlands from construction of ski resort «Svydovets» Essence of the problem: In May 2017, Rakhiv and Tyachiv state administrations adopted the decisions on approval of the detailed plan of the territory (DPT) and decided on functional designation…

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EPL (formerly Ecopravo-lviv) is a nongovernmental international organization, created in 1994 in order to provide assistance to individuals and legal persons in the protection of environmental rights, to promote the development of the environment protection, environmental education, science and culture.

History of organization

  • 1994 y.
    March 24 – established Charitable foundation “Ecopravo – Lviv.”
    clinic5
  • 1994 y.
    October 14 – created the “Center for Public Environmental Advocacy” with ABA / CEELI.
  • 1994 y.
    1994

    – Еstablished the environmental legal library of the CF “Ecopravo-Lviv”

    – Оrganized the conference of the Association of Environmental Law of the EECCA countries

    – Оrganized the conference of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide

  • 1995 y.

    – June – founded Environmental Advocacy Journal

    – The CF “Ecopravo- Lviv” became the Headquarters of Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide

  • 1998 y.
    1998

    EPL participated in the negotiations of the Aarhus Convention under the auspices of the UNECE, in the process of signature, ratification and implementation in the European project “Doors to Democracy.”

  • 2001 y.
    EPL became the headquarters of the Guta Association.
  • 2002 y.
    2002

    – Established Ukraine’s first environmental law clinical program for training legal practitioners;
    – EPL’s President elected the Vice Chairman of the Compliance Committee of the Convention of access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters
    – Started implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Ukraine.

  • 2003 y.
    2003

    – Symposium for Judges in Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.

    – Organization of the meeting of the Steering Committee of the IUCN.Environmental Commission

    – EPL realized the project “Promotion of adaptation of environmental law of the EU in Ukraine”

  • 2003 y.

    – International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognized EPL as the center of legal excellency

    – Established cooperation with the Secretariat of the Espoo Convention, Ramsar, Danube and Bonn Conventions and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change with the aim to preserve biodiversity

  • 2004 y.
    2004

    – The project “Development of the Center of Environmental Advocacy”

    – The project “Analysis of possibilities to realize the program of evaluation of environmental activity and release of information”

  • 2004 y.
    2004

    – DOEN Foundation started support of the environmental public advocacy center

    – Launched the institutional support of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

  • 2005 y.
    2005

    – 25 November – renaming Charitable fund “Ecopravo – Lviv” to International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” (EPL).

    – The project “Enforcement of access to environmental information”

  • 2006 y.
    2006

    EPL representative was awarded the most prestigious award in the sphere of environmental protection – Goldman Prize – for strategic case of the organization “The Danube-Black Sea”.

  • 2007 y.
    2007

    – The Project “Sanitary protective zones, nuclear safety and climate change» funded by Sigrid Rausing Trust

    – The Project “Access to environmental information in Ukraine: the experience of NGOs and public authorities.”

  • 2007 y.
    2007

    – The Project “Strengthening public participation in environmental matters through strategic litigation.”

    – The Project ““Improvement of access to justice in environmental matters through public monitoring of courts”

  • 2008 y.
    2008

    – Establishment of the journal “Environment. People .Law. ” .

    – The Project ” Utilization of toxic pesticides in the territory of Lviv oblast in the basin of transboundary rivers Syan and Western Buh”

  • 2009 y.
    2009

    – The Project “Public monitoring of the cases relating to environmental rights of people in Lviv and Ternopil regions.”

    – The Project “New legal tools for effective control of pollution emissions”

  • 2009 y.
    2009

    – The Project “Stimulation of realization of the right to access to information owned by the state”

    – The Open Society Institute (Budapest) started institutional support of EPL.

  • 2010 y.
    2010

    – The Project “Improvement of access to environmental information through stimulation of openness of relevant public authorities”

    – The Project “Stimulating the Ukrainian public to participation in the realization of the European strategy of the Danube region”

  • 2010 y.
    2010

    – Winning the lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights

    – The Project “Legal protection of environmental rights of citizens.”

    – EPL became a member of the Working group “Envint”, a member of WG3 of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum

  • 2011 y.
    2011

    – The Project “Information and activation of public participation in developing the National Action Plan for the EU Strategy for the Danube Region”

    – The Project “Improvement of legal preconditions and activation of the public for protection of environmental rights of citizens»

  • 2011 y.
    2011

    – The Project “Developing preconditions for effective application of the Law of Ukraine “On Access to Public Information in the Sphere of Environmental Protection”

    – The Project Public participation and transparency in nuclear safety issues”

  • 2011 y.
    2011

    – EPL became a member the Climate Action Network (CAN)

    – EPL became a member of ANPED.

    – EPL became a member of The Access Initiative (TAI).

  • 2012 y.
    2012

    EPL coordinated the process of drafting Annual report “Public assessment of national environmental policy” in 2003-2012

  • 2013 y.
    2013

    – EPL became a member of the Academy of Environmental Law of the International Union for Conservation of Nature

    – The Project ” Enforcing European standards of environmental impact assessment in Ukraine”

  • 2013 y.
    2013

    – The Project “Improvement of regulation of environmental component in regional programs in Lviv region”

    – EPL signed an agreement with Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) for realization of the project on building capacity of EPL and providing institutional support for the organization.

  • 2013 y.
    2013

    – The Project to develop strategic litigation in Ukraine.

    – The establishment of Ecolitigation National Platform

    – The Project “Strengthening participatory democracy for effective protection of the environment.”

    – Creation of the network of pro bono legal aid in Ukraine.

  • 2014 y.
    2014

    – The opening of the office in Kyiv.

    – International Symposium “Human Rights and the Environment in the new Ukraine, in honor of Professor Svitlana Kravchenko.”

    – Launching the clinical program for students-environmentalists.

  • 2014 y.
    2014

    – Development of the first version of the electronic analytical system of environmental information.

    – EPL became a member of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB).

  • 2015 y.
    2015

    – Start of the projects funded by FOSI, TTF, USAID.

    – Revival of the Guta Association of environmental lawyers from Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus

  • 2015 y.
    2015

    – Development of the course for judges “Human rights and the environment”

    – Creation of on-line environmental law library.

    – Co-authorship of the draft law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment”.

  • 2016 y.
    Development of the on-line course on international environmental law.
  • 2017 y.
    Creation of the Ukrainian Center of Environmental Policy and Action