What were your top 5 stories on environmental democracy in 2016? Our top stories include
1. The assassination of Berta Caceres an environmental defender fighting to use her environmental democracy rights to stop the destruction of her River ( Environmental Defender rights and public participation) http://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-stories-2016-21669335…
2.The Flint Michigan Lead crisis – (Transparency and Right to Know what is in your water )http://www.cnn.com/…/11/hea…/toxic-tap-water-flint-michigan/
2. The #DAPHL Pipeline – Right for Indigenous People to be consulted ( Public participation and accountability)
3. The debate on labelling food for GMO’s across the world ( Transparency) http://www.chicagotribune.com/…/ct-gmo-food-labeling-0313-b…
4. The Worlds largest oil contamination case from Ecuador goes to Canada (access to justice)
http://www.counterpunch.org/…/out-of-amazonia-ecuadors-ind…/
5. The Philippines probe climate change law suit http://www.climatechangenews.com/…/carbon-majors-respond-t…/ ( access to justice) While US plaintiffs earn early success https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/us/federal-lawsuit/
While these stories got alot of press this year few reporters linked them to environmental democracy rights and Principle 10 ( access to information, public participation and access to justice). This is even though they were fundamentally about people’s right to participate in environmental decision-making. In 2017 , The Access Initative hopes to point out more and more ways in which Principle 10 rights or access rights affect people all over the world and drive a change in health, environment and livelihoods.
