Strategic environmental litigation was the issue that thinkers of the ecolegal national platform came together to solve. Several leading CSOs' lawyers in the environmental field, representing different regions of Ukraine and Belarus, gathered for a solutions-oriented discussion of environmental problems. Panelists were representatives of the "Environment-People-Law" (Lviv), "EcoPravo - Kyiv", "Ecohome" (Belarus) and other organizations.

 

Lawyers of the ecolegal national platform spoke about the history and the present of the environmental legal movement in Ukraine, as well as the concept of strategic litigation (SL), its criteria and goals. Director of the International Charity Organization "Environment-People-Law" Olena Kravchenko noted that "SL is a search of a starting point, which solves environmental problems at minimal cost, to change public awareness."

 

During the roundtable, participants emphasized the importance of SL, combining the efforts of civil society organizations, judiciary, and state agencies to protect the environment, and establishing cooperation between CSOs and judiciary.

 

Thinking up collaborative solutions was at the heart of the roundtable. It was marked by the discussion of the ground breaking strategic environmental cases, in particular the case of building the Tashlyk pumped-storage hydroelectricity complex, the case of public access to environmental information, the case of introducing the course "Environmental Ethics" into educational institutions in Ukraine, and the issue of building small hydroelectricity systems in Carpathians.

 

The panelists represented some of the leading thinkers from Lviv, Kyiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Luhansk, and Belarus. Together, their ideas will lead to solutions needed to solve environmental problems in Ukraine.