Training Wild Animal Advocates

Every year, the Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment (GLA), has the opportunity to work with JD students (in the International Animal and Environmental Law Clinic), as well as Animal Law LLM students from around the world (in the International Wildlife Law Clinic) as they develop or transition their careers into wild animal protection. The Clinics provide an opportunity for students to explore contemporary wildlife issues and relevant treaties and other laws, apply these laws to client or partner-based problems, and engage in independent research and analysis for the purpose of thought leadership and problem-solving on contemporary wildlife issues.

During the 2023-2024 academic year, for example, JD clinic students produced two compelling reports that were prepared in collaboration with partner organizations:

• Working with Mercy for Animals, JD clinic students helped to prepare a report entitled “The Ramsar Convention and Animal Agriculture: An Introductory Guide to the Issues and Opportunities.” The report is intended to serve as a resource for environment and animal advocates around the world as they pursue novel policy avenues to end the environmental destruction caused by industrial animal agriculture.
• Working with researchers at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), JD clinic students helped to produce a new report entitled “Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment–Part 1: the Landscape of Criminalization.” The report assesses the global rate of criminalization across several environmental harms relating to wildlife, fisheries, and forestry laws as well as water, air, waste, and noise pollution and illegal mining.

During the 2023-2024 academic year, GLA worked with Animal Law LLM students from Australia, Brazil, Pakistan, the United States and Zimbabwe. Each of these students brought perspectives informed by their lived experiences and goals for wild animal protection in their country. The class discussions were rich, nuanced, and dynamic, and the students all learned a tremendous amount from each other.

The LLM students completed a range of projects during the past academic year, including several client and partner-based projects. These students also worked on projects relevant to wildlife issues in their home countries. The following are just a few examples:

• One student examined the pollution and environmental issues related to Lake Chivero and the Manyame River in Harare, Zimbabwe, looking specifically at the threat of urban farming on the wetland habitat, which is home to several threatened waterbirds, including the African fish eagle. The area is known to have the greatest diversity of bird species in Zimbabwe. The lake is an internationally protected wetland under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and Zimbabwe has an obligation to maintain the ecological character of the wetland, which would also protect the waterbird species. The student proposed a community-led monitoring program and strengthened enforcement against polluters.
• Another student from Zimbabwe chose to research and evaluate community-based wildlife protection. Many of these programs, developed in the 1980s, promised both community development and wildlife conservation; yet many argue that neither promise was fulfilled, despite the investment of significant financing and human resources. The student argued that such programs can lead to on-the-ground benefits to both people and wild animals when they are developed through parliamentary processes and established through national legislation, with eco-tourism and other non-consumptive uses as a central focus. The student proposed several legal reforms relating to governance, anti-corruption measures, enforcement, and planning.
• A student from Brazil researched and analyzed the potential for the Amazon Fund, as a compensated moratorium on deforestation and forest degradation, to improve wildlife protection in Brazil. This student’s research drew important connections between habitat conservation and the protection of wild animals and encouraged additional investment in projects like the Amazon Regional Protected Areas (ARPA), which will provide important biodiversity protection and train and prepare local communities to both support enforcement efforts and manage conservation efforts.

At both the Center for Animal Law Studies and GLA, we look forward to what our incredible Lewis & Clark JD and LLM students will do to protect animals in their future work. This year’s clinic students are hard at work, addressing issues relating to topics ranging from the new plastics treaty negotiation to elephant protection. The students are excited about the skills-based learning, the opportunities to engage in client-based work, and the start of the academic year overall.

This blog was written by Erica Lyman, Clinical Professor and Director of the Global Law Alliance for Animals and the Environment. Professor Lyman has over fifteen years of experience in international environmental law, with a strong focus on wildlife protection issues. She also teaches Global Wild Animal Law in the online Animal Law advanced degree program. GLA was launched in the fall of 2020 as an innovative collaboration of the Center for Animal Law Studies and the top-ranked Environmental Law Program at Lewis & Clark Law School. GLA champions wild animals and wild spaces around the world. Law students (JD and LLM) actively participate in GLA’s work for academic credit. 

The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) was founded in 2008 with a mission to educate the next generation of animal law advocates and advance animal protection through the law. With vision and bold risk-taking, CALS has since developed into a world-renowned animal law epicenter. CALS’ Alumni-in-Action from 30 countries are making a difference for animals around the world. CALS is a self-funded Center within the law school operating under the Lewis & Clark College 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, and is able to provide these educational opportunities through donations and grants.