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 OLYA MELEN Imagine that you are in your early twenties, fresh out of law school, and for your first courtroom experience your firm sends you into a lion’s den. That was Olya Melen’s welcome into her profession. Her employer, the Ukranian law firm Environment-People-Law (EPL), was suing the country’s government over the government’s plan to dredge a huge shipping canal through a protected wetland area. The firm was taking on the President, the Environment Minister, the whole ruling structure of Ukraine. And into the courtroom EPL sent its most fledgling member. Olya Melen recalls being “more than nervous – my hands were shaking, my voice was breaking, and it was really scary. My opponents were quite strong.” In fact, she was up against cadres of seasoned government lawyers. But she was determined, passionate and up to the challenge. Over time she developed an unbeatable case. In 2006, she was awarded the international Goldman Environmental Prize. The Ukranian government started dredging the canal in 2004, without public notice and in active violation of both domestic laws and 10 international agreements. The dredging was through the most sensitive section of the Danube Delta, a mosaic of lakes, rivers and reeds covering over 1 million acres in Ukraine and Romania. The Delta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve, home to 300 species of birds and many other forms of wildlife. It is a wondrous and fragile environment and, in a world of disappearing wetlands, increasingly unique. Just the place, the government decided, to slice in half with a broad canal so ships could travel directly between the Danube River and the Black Sea. When Environment-People-Law brought suit, government lawyers and ministers denounced the firm and Olya Melen as traitors and Romanian spies. There was huge pressure to drop the case. Instead, Melen expanded it. She appealed to international agencies to uphold the conventions protecting the Delta, and brought wide attention to the canal at a time when the Ukranian government was applying to be admitted to the European Union. Melen and EPL scored a huge victory when the judge in the case ruled that the environmental impact assessment for the canal, which had been approved by the Minister of Environment, was inadequate. The court ruled that the canal violated environmental laws and would disrupt the biodiversity of the Delta. That should have stopped the canal, but it didn’t. The government simply continued dredging. It took political upheaval to enforce the court’s decision. In the “Orange Revolution” of 2005 a new government swept into power. The new Environment Minister rejected plans for the next phase of the canal. For now the machinery has stopped and the Delta waters are still. But the challenge of protection remains. The new President, Viktor Yushchenko, has vowed to complete the canal in the future. For now he is respecting the ruling of the court. That provides time for Olya Melen to prepare the next phase of the defense. She is 26 now, with greater confidence and experience. But even when she began, when her hands were shaking and her voice was breaking, “I was always optimistic about our chances and never thought about defeat. I kept repeating the phrase, ‘Nothing is impossible.’” Resources: “Eco-Prize winner from Ukraine interviewed,” byline: Michele Nijhuis, Grist Magazine “Ukranian lawyer wins environmental prize for efforts to protect the Danube,” World Wildlife Fund
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