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2025 ELAW Annual Report
I am proud of all that our team and partners have accomplished in 2025 helping communities speak out for clean air, clean water, and a healthy planet. We are grateful for the allies who support our work and make it possible for ELAW to advance its mission, despite the increasingly complex threats and challenges facing environmental defenders around the world.
Some highlights of 2025 include:
ELAW Fellows
In 2025, we hosted 10 in-person ELAW Fellowships, and two Global Exchange Fellowships. Fellowships are tailored to meet each individual’s professional goals and equip partners with new allies, skills, and strategies to return to their home countries as even more effective advocates for the environment and human rights.
ELAW Annual Meeting
More than 60 ELAW partners gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, for the 2025 ELAW Annual Meeting, followed by the International Meeting on Environmental Law at the University of Magdalena.
ELAW Annual Meetings build the bonds that make our network strong. Participants work together to meet the challenges of protecting our climate, defending critical ecosystems, and amplifying community efforts to create a sustainable future.
Successful Leadership Transition
I was honored to join ELAW as the Executive Director in July 2025 after Bern Johnson retired, following 34 years at the helm. The organization is in a strong position to build on its work and collaborate with even more advocates around the world to defend human rights and the environment through law.
I have enjoyed collaborating with ELAW’s incredible team, board, partners, and supporters to shape ELAW’s next chapter, and look forward to fortifying ELAW as we take on even greater challenges in the years to come. We are all thankful for Bern’s incredible service in helping ELAW grow to be the global movement we know today.
Preventing Emissions that Worsen the Climate Crisis
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report, “Global Warming of 1.5°C,” concludes with the statement: “Every bit of warming matters, every year matters, every choice matters.”
ELAW is working with partners on projects to reduce or halt CO2 emissions in proposed mining, transportation, coal, oil, gas, and liquefied natural gas projects in Brazil, Guyana, Indonesia, Mexico, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and around the world.
Please find information about our work to protect the climate, push back on the worsening repressions of environmental and human rights defenders, preserve biodiversity, and much more in ELAW’s newsletters and other highlights reported below.
Dr. Lalanath de Silva
Executive Director
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide
Building the movement for environmental law
ELAW provides legal, scientific, security, and organizational expertise to help public interest lawyers advance their work, and brings together this global community to build solidarity, offer mutual assistance, and share inspiration.
Financials
ELAW is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and our tax ID number is 94-3116602. Please find the most recent financial documents below. 2025 financials will be published in May.
Charity Navigator and Candid consistently award ELAW their highest ratings for financial management, accountability, and transparency.
2025 Highlights
December 1, 2025
ELAW recognizes that merely treating the symptoms of biodiversity loss is not enough. We are committed to tackling the root causes by improving legal frameworks that protect ecosystems and ensuring environmental and human rights laws are enforced so that we safeguard our natural heritage for generations to come.
August 14, 2025
Historic International Climate Decisions
These landmark opinions provide authoritative interpretations of existing international law, underscoring the legal duties of States in addressing the climate crisis and its devastating environmental and human rights impacts, and offering guidance for future legal action and accountability.
April 29, 2025
Chile’s Court of Appeals in Valparaíso has unanimously upheld the acquittal of five environmental and human rights defenders who were unjustly criminalized for peacefully opposing a high-voltage transmission project in La Campana-Peñuelas, a UN Biosphere Reserve.
February 18, 2025
UK Offshore Oilfields Reversed
Scotland’s Court of Session has ruled the previous approval of the massive Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields unlawful. In addition to the massive climate damage these projects would cause, the Rosebank project also threatens the Faroe-Shetland Sponge Belt Marine Protected Area.
UPDATED RESOURCE!
Climate Litigation Strategies
Climate change is one of the gravest injustices facing humanity. Activists, civil society organizations, and public interest lawyers have been mobilizing and taking cases to courts and tribunals around the world. In 2025, ELAW updated this resource to track and share recent decisions and legal strategies that show promise for achieving climate justice. This database compiles judgments from around the world and provides practical insights for building robust climate cases.
Thanks for your support!
We are grateful for all the foundations and individuals who support our work and make it possible for ELAW to advance its mission.
Many interns and volunteers also supported our mission in 2025 by hosting visiting Fellows for homestays and taking them on adventures to enjoy Oregon’s natural beauty, helping at ELAW’s local and international events, and collaborating with ELAW’s Law, Science, and Defenders Teams to provide critical information to grassroots environmental advocates around the world.
Celebrating 35 Years of ELAW
35 years ago, grassroots advocates from 10 countries launched ELAW to help each other protect communities and the environment through law. Today, ELAW brings together hundreds of public interest advocates working in 88 countries. The core mission of ELAW has held strong– bringing together lawyers, scientists, and other advocates to help communities speak out for clean air, clean water, and a healthy planet.
Over time, the urgency of this mission has only increased. ELAW is in a unique position to support the work of courageous and dedicated advocates driving systems change in their communities around the world.
Please make a gift today to help us connect with more environmental and human rights defenders working in their home communities around the world to create a brighter future.