The Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC), Inc. is an environmental non-government organization committed to helping communities uphold their constitutional right to a healthful and balanced ecology. Its staff is made up of lawyers, paralegals, researchers, and community organizers. It also works with an extensive network of volunteer lawyers and scientists. As part of its assistance, ELAC provides legal representation in environmental court cases, legal advice in drafting environmental laws, and paralegal trainings for both community volunteers and government law enforcers.
Many of the issues ELAC works on are related to the access to and use of forestry and coastal resources, pollution, and land use and tenure. Through its area offices in Cebu, Bohol, Tacloban and Palawan, ELAC responds to these issues by addressing the leading social causes of environmental degradation: illegal practices, unsound policies, poor resource management, and lack of awareness.
To effectively deal with the myriad environmental problems threatening Filipino communities, ELAC has organized its activities into a seven-part program with the following components: 1) Developmental Legal Assistance (DLA), 2) Community-Based Resource Management (CBRM), 3) Education and Training, 4) Advocacy, 5) Law Enforcement, 6) Research, and 7) Institutional Capacity-Building.
