Fact Sheet: Latin American Environmental Prosecutors Network

 

Date of establishment

November 25th, 2008.

Legal basis

Meeting held in Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil, with prosecutors from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Peru.

Objective

Exchange of relevant environmental information;

Permanent capacity building of its members;

Strengthening of the prosecutor’s work, as well as of the mechanisms for the protection of the environment

International support in environmental crimes investigations;

Integrated action of the prosecutors from the Latin American countries.

Nature

 

Non-profit association dedicated to the exchange of information between Latin American prosecutors acting in environmental issues, including criminal and civil law, as well as capacity building of its members.

Membership

Latin American prosecutors dealing with environmental criminal, administrative and civil cases, registration upon ordinary request. List of members dated December 2012: 290 prosecutors from 19 countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico and French Guiana). Non prosecutors members are allowed, admitted by invitation of members, pending approval by the board, on the condition of “experts”.

Observers

N/A

Geographical scope

Latin America

Substantive scope

Environmental crimes, class actions and administrative proceedings according to the legal attribution of the prosecutors in each country.

Governance structure

Executive coordinator, elected among the members of the network, with a two year mandate, one reelection allowed; one secretary general; one board, with one member from each of the nineteen countries represented in the network

Cooperation

INECE

Activities

1.    Annual Seminars

  • 2009 – Bonito, BRAZIL
  • 2010 – Asuncion, PARAGUAY
  • 2011 – Lima, PERU
  • 2012 – Quito, EQUADOR

2.    Publications

  • O DIREITO AMBIENTAL NA AMÉRICA LATINA E A ATUAÇÃO DO MINISTÉRIO PÚBLICO, TOMO I, 2009 (Environmental law in Latin America and the work of the prosecutors, Volume I, 2009)
  • EL DERECHO AMBIENTAL EN LATINOAMÉRICA Y LA ACTUACIÓN DEL MINISTERIO PÚBLICO, TOMO II, 2010 ( Environmental law in Latin America and the work of the prosecutors, Volume II, 2010)
  • MINERAÇÃO E ATUAÇÃO DO MINISTÉRIO PÚBLICO NA AMÉRICA LATINA, 2012 (Mining and the work of the prosecutors, 2012)

3.    Working groups

  • Hydro power plants study group
  • Deforestation satellite monitoring study group
  • CITES study group
  • Cultural heritage study group

4.    Capacity building workshops

5.    Experts data-base;

6.    Framework of fields of work of the network’s members.

Source of funding

Avina Foundation, Fundação O Boticário

Contact information

 

Sílvia Cappelli

Procuradora de Justiça

Av. Aureliano de Figueiredo Pinto, 80 - Torre Sul, 12º andar, Sala 1206

Praia de Belas, Porto Alegre – RS - BRASIL

+55 (51) 32951254

mpambiental@mpambiental.org

cappelli@mp.rs.gov.br

Website

www.mpambiental.org