P.O. 316, Lviv, 79000

+380 32 225 76 82

office@epl.org.ua

EPL: Events and Announcements

7 August 2023 The draft law 9516: the road to hell is paved with good intentions…

The draft law 9516: the road to hell is paved with good intentions… or how the cancellation of requirements for EIA, clearcut sanitary logging and reduction of the powers of the Ministry of Environment will contribute to “effective management of forests on the basis of the principles of handling forestry close to nature, adapted to climate…

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5 August 2023 Bays of the Kakhov reservoir after the disaster. The silent death of thousands of living beings

Consequences of blowing up the Kakhovskaya HPP for the ecosystems of southern Ukraine Walking along the bottom of the former reservoir, we saw thousands of shells from dead molluscs. They were scattered everywhere, among them lay the dried skeletons of crayfish, and sometimes there were remains of fish. Frogs croaked in the remaining lakes, surely,…

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31 July 2023 Reconstruction of the Kakhovka HPP: premature decision of the CMU

“Kakhovka Platform” calls on the government to reconsider its intentions The civil society coalition “Kakhovka Platform” appealed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal with a letter of appeal regarding the government’s approval of the experimental project to rebuild the Kakhovka HPP. “The blowing up of the Kakhovka HPP dam by the Russian occupiers…

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26 July 2023 The Supreme Court on construction within the coastal protection zone

On July 3, 2023, the Supreme Court issued a ruling regarding legality of the approval of the detailed plan “Yaroslavna” in the Shchaslyvtseve village council of the Henichesk district of the Kherson region (case No. 540/86/20). The essence of the case was that the detailed plan of a part of the territory of the Shchaslyvtseve…

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26 July 2023 Staff of the National Nature Park “Desnyansko-Starohutskyi” became the winner of a prestigious international competition!

Staff of “Desnyansko-Starohutskyi” National Nature Park won the International Ranger Award from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This is recognition at the global level of many years of persistent and hard work! Why was this park awarded? Because staff of the park not only protect nature with power of their hearts but also…

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26 July 2023 Continuation of the case on compliance with the requirements of legislation during the treatment of fields with pesticides and agrochemicals: Zalistsi village, Kremenets district, Ternopil region

  For many years, residents of the village of Zalistsi in the Ternopil region have been watching the growing use of pesticides and agrochemicals of dubious quality by local farmers. EPL team also got involved in solving this issue. We have already repeatedly talked about the development of this case on our information resources: http://surl.li/jkhhk,…

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View all announcements and events

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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EPL is a member of:

Updated documents at the EPL website

5 August 2023 Bays of the Kakhov reservoir after the disaster. The silent death of thousands of living beings

Consequences of blowing up the Kakhovskaya HPP for the ecosystems of southern Ukraine Walking along the bottom of the former reservoir, we saw thousands of shells from dead molluscs. They were scattered everywhere, among them lay the dried skeletons of crayfish, and sometimes there were remains of fish. Frogs croaked in the remaining lakes, surely,…

Read
21 July 2023 Appeal of the Environmental Impact Assessment Conclusion for Polisske VES

  Case: Appeal of the Environmental Impact Assessment Conclusion for Polisske VES Region: Ukraine Case Overview: The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure for Polisske VES was conducted with significant violations of environmental legislation both by the business entity and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (referred to as the Ministry of Ecology as of…

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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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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